Harney's hospital funds warning

Hospitals have to live within their budgets and the new Health Service Executive will insist on it, the Tánaiste has warned. Ms Harney, the Minister for Health, said that "we cannot plan anything if people do not live within budgets.

That will have to be the way as we go forward, otherwise nobody could plan for the circumstances that arise."

She also told the Dáil she was convinced that Ireland could have a world-class health system.

It would not be created in 2½ years, "just as we did not do so with the economy. However, I remain optimistic and positive that Ireland can achieve a world-class health service in terms of how healthcare is delivered when the reforms which are under way are fully implemented." She looked forward "to the negotiations with the IMO and consultants in regard to the changes which are necessary to implement the reform programme which the Government has under way to ensure this country has the best possible standard of healthcare delivery in the world".

When the Green Party chairman, Mr John Gormley, said "dream on", Ms Harney said: "I will not dream on. That was said about the economy 10 years ago. We can do it in Ireland and that has to be the ambition. That is certainly an ambition I have set for myself."

During health questions, Labour's health spokeswoman, Ms Liz McManus, asked about the €20 million deficit the Dublin teaching hospitals faced, which had arisen mainly from higher than expected spending on expensive cancer drugs.

Ms Harney stressed that "the intention is that when the HSE starts in January it will do so with a clean balance sheet and not with a debt from this year. We will be insisting on this." She said, however, that she intended to ensure that the most pressing problems in the health service "are addressed as a matter of urgency and in the context of the upcoming Estimates".

Ms McManus said if there were to be an increase in throughput of patients in hospital, it would add to budget requirements. "The population is growing and the budgets for the hospitals are simply not keeping pace."

Ms Harney pointed out that there was a proposal for a new hospital for the Mater, without any extra beds. "We need to reconsider this. Clearly if we hare providing new, state-of-the-art facilities, we must use them to increase bed capacity in the Dublin area."