Health overrun tallies with social welfare cut

In the run-up to the Budget, with the internal deals done between the politicians, one piece of irony remains.

Today, the Fine Gael Health Minister is looking at a cost overrun of €400m in his estimates, and the Labour Social Welfare Minister is under pressure to cut her costs by €440m.

Coincidence? The health overrun is because 70% of that budget goes on high medical salaries, whereas 100% of the social welfare budget prevents hundreds of thousands of people from falling further into the poverty trap.