Hospital's €48m deficit is 'actually underfunding' by the Government, PAC told

The Mater’s overall budget for 2025 was €615m, almost double the €315m allocated to the hospital as recently as 2019, with just over one third of the increase relating to national pay awards, according to the hospital's CEO. File picture: Arthur Carron

The head of one of the State’s largest hospitals has said that a financial deficit of close to €50m at the institution “looks like debt, but it’s actually underfunding”.

Josephine Ryan Leacy, chief executive of the Mater Misericordiae hospital in Dublin, said the €48.7m deficit only exists because “we weren’t funded for the services we deliver”.