UK 'wrongly diverted millions to pay for Irish healthcare'

The British government was accused by the Opposition Conservative Party today of wrongly diverting millions of pounds from the UK National Health Service to pay for the healthcare of pensioners in Ireland.

Under reciprocal arrangements between the two countries, the UK and Ireland make payments to each other to cover the cost of providing healthcare to their citizens – including pensioners – living in the other’s country.

However, the Conservatives said UK government figures showed that while the UK received just £2,606 (€2,890.08) a year per pensioner, Ireland got almost three times with £7,457 (€8,269.90) per pensioner.

Earlier this year, the Conservatives claimed that the UK had overpaid the Irish health service up to €750m over the past five years as a result of the scheme.

Shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley said British government “incompetence” was costing the NHS millions of pounds.

“It is inconceivable that healthcare in Ireland really costs three times as much as in the UK. The Government needs to explain why they have agreed to such a bad deal for UK taxpayers,” he said.

“NHS funds are always precious. For the Government to carelessly enter into an arrangement like this is a betrayal of the trust we have placed in them to use those funds wisely.”

The British Department of Health said that the figures reflected the average cost of healthcare in each country. While the UK was close to the overall European average, Ireland was at the higher end of the range.

A spokesman said the Uk government had recently concluded a new agreement with Dublin on the level of payments.

“It would appear that the opposition’s information is somewhat out of date and misleading,” the spokesman said.

“Negotiations with the Republic of Ireland have been on-going since 2007 on the the amount the UK should be paying to cover the cost of healthcare for UK pensioners living in Ireland.

“As a result of this agreement, the UK has paid the Republic a total of just over €785m for the years 2007-9 – or approximately €260m a year – considerably less than the figure suggested by the shadow health secretary.”