Healthcare crisis - €70m surplus could fund vital projects

TODAY’S litany of under-spending by Government departments is enough to inflict apoplexy on long-suffering patients in hospital waiting lists or languishing on trollies in those crowded accident and emergency wards.

Given the shambles of Ireland’s health service, most people will find it astonishing that the Department of Health last year returned €70 million to Finance.

That amount was unspent at the end of the year. This despite public clamour for the opening of facilities which the same department has been forced to mothball because of lack of funding. Between them, five departments returned a whopping €325m to Finance. Agriculture surrendered €146m, Education €45m, Enterprise €55m, and Defence €13m.