Elaine Loughlin: Bernard Gloster's 'I told you so' moment

Move comes nine months after HSE head called for more money

Labour finance spokesperson Ged Nash called on Paschal Donohoe to come before the Dáil to explain 'how he got the figures so wrong in the first place'.

Bernard Gloster is now having his "I told you so" moment.

Last October, the head of the HSE told the Government just days after the Budget, which allocated €22.5bn for healthcare funding, that more money would be needed.

Hitting out an the inadequacy of the €800m extra that had been provided, Mr Gloster said up to €2.7bn was the actual amount in additional funding needed just to keep the service going.

Now nine months later, the coalition agrees that the health service requires significantly more funding and €1.5bn will be added to the base this year and each year.

On top of this, the Government has agreed that a further €1.2bn for Existing Level of Service (ELS) will be allocated for next year.

Labour was quick out of the traps, stating that the €2.7bn extra for health outlined in the summer economic statement (SEC) simply lays bare the "fiction" that was the allocation of last October's budget.

Calling on Paschal Donohoe to come before the Dáil to explain "how he got the figures so wrong in the first place," Ged Nash said the extra allocation was made to "clean up the mess created by the Minister for Public Expenditure last October".

But for many years now the runaway health train has been going off its financial tracks.

The amount of public funding pumped into health has increased from €13.7bn in 2014 to almost €25bn this year when the latest funding as well as a supplementary budget provided are added in.

Bang for buck is not a phrase often used to describe long waiting lists, consistently high trolley figures, and issues with the recruitment and retention of healthcare workers.

In fact, the “divergence between resourcing and activity” was described as a “big concern” by Department of Health secretary general Robert Watt and Mr Gloster in a report published earlier this year.

The report compiled by the Irish Government Economic Evaluation Service and the Department of Health did find that 50,000 additional healthcare staff have been employed over the past decade, but concluded that "the large divergence present in all sites between the expenditure and workforce provided, relative to the growth in either separate activity metrics or ‘composite’ activity”.

The report added: “In most cases, the divergence is significant, with the percentage growth in composite activity between 2016 and 2022 either negative, or two times behind workforce growth, and up to three times behind real expenditure growth over the same period."

Doling out yet more billions to prop up the health service cannot simply be sucked into what is a money-hungry system. This Government cannot and should not let that happen.

Confirming the extra funding, Mr Donnelly said that resources must be "maximised" to ensure we treat as many patients as possible and can expand services.

"I have introduced a strong focus on productivity and the need for stronger performance management and accountability. I have made it clear to the HSE that it needs to demonstrate greater progress here," he said.

Finance Minister Jack Chambers and Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe also made it clear that the money is "used in a way that delivers against better health outcomes" and warned that "this is a budget that is adhered to".