Extra €47m funding approved in HSE service plan

An additional €47 million in funding, generated mainly from reduced costs due to falling unemployment levels, is to be given to the health service next year.

However, the HSE will still have to make savings of more than €600 million.

The provision of the additional money will considerably scale back the planned saving of €113 million which the HSE had been asked to realised as a result of “probity measures”.

The savings from probity measures has now been scaled back to €23 million. The HSE had been asked in the Budget in October to make savings of €666 million.

Highly placed sources said an additional €47 million is now to be provided to the health services, meaning the savings to be realised is now set at €619 million.

Sources said that €46 million in the additional funding came from the Department of Social Protection. A further €1 million was provided from other areas of government.

Health service sources said that the target of €113 million in savings which had been sought from "probity measures" had been deemed to be unattainable following a verification process involving the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Department of the Taoiseach.

Under the new HSE service plan, to be published tomorrow the Government will seek to generate savings of €23 million from medical card probity measures.