Micheál Martin accused of misleading Dáil over Sinn Féin health budget proposals

Ructions in Dáil between Martin and Sinn Féin's Pearse Doherty, with Ceann Comhairle threatening to suspend the house

Micheál Martin said the Government allocated something 'very similar' to what SF proposed. Picture: PA

Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty has accused Tánaiste Micheál Martin of misleading the Dáil over the party’s proposed health funding allocation in its alternative budget.

There were ructions in the Dáil between Mr Doherty and Mr Martin, with Ceann Comhairle Seán Ó Fearghaíl threatening to suspend the House during the exchange.

Mr Doherty questioned whether the Government accepted that the health service has been underfunded, interjecting while Mr Martin said the decision had been made by the entire Cabinet.

The Tánaiste said the Government “allocated something very similar to what the Sinn Féin party proposed in its alternative budget”, with Mr Doherty rejecting his assertion and saying his party had sought to allocate €2.5bn compared to the Government’s €800m.

However, according to the party’s alternative health budget document, it planned to allocate €1.3bn in both current and capital funding for the HSE.

Sinn Féin's Pearse Doherty claimed his party had sought to allocate €2.5bn to health, compared to the Government’s €800m. Picture: PA

Earlier in the day, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar defended the health budget allocation, saying any funding provided must be spent on what it is allocated for.

“We have to be able to trust that the money we allocate actually gets spent on what it was allocated for and that's been a big problem with the HSE in recent years,” Mr Varadkar told RTÉ’s Today with Claire Byrne.

“If money is allocated by the Government and voted on by the Oireachtas, a public body can only spend it on what it was allocated for unless they get permission to do otherwise.

These kinds of management weaknesses are too common in the health service and that’s going to change.

The Social Democrats’ Róisín Shortall said that among the issues in health is that the Department of Public Expenditure "has no appreciation for its reform agenda".

"Some of the larger, fundamental problems within the HSE are largely down to the failure of DPER [Department of Public Expenditure] to actually understand what providing a decent health service is about,” Ms Shortall said.

She said the department had failed to provide multi-year health budgets and had not funded things such as an integrated financial system.

She said the secretary general of the Department of Health, Robert Watt, had come from DPER and suggested that there is an entrenched attitude against funding the health service. Health Minister Stephen Donnelly asked at this point that she withdraw those comments because Mr Watt was not present to defend himself.