Our bank balance is thriving... but Health is still on critical list

THE country’s health service continues to haemhorrhage money even as the latest Exchequer figures – the national bank balance – are ahead of projections, half way through the year.

Officials say the overspend in Health will have to be carefully interrogated in coming weeks.

This is despite the fact that the last Budget awarded €500million extra to the Department, bringing its total spend this year to a record €15billion.

Health spending is up 2.3% in the first six months of 2018, for reasons that are unexplained.

The total comes to €168million more than planned, and could make necessary yet another supplementary budget – which would be certain to frustrate Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Health Minister Simon Harris.

Both have repeatedly expressed unhappiness that the system seems incapable of living within its means, even though Ireland spends more per capita on Health than most other developed nation – only for patients to endure poor outcomes and backward conditions.

Because of the heavy further investment last October, the projection now is that Health spending will be up 8.6% by the end of this year, over the calendar year of 2017, with an additional splurge of €606million.

The increasing Health spend is offset overall by increased income tax and better corporation tax performance.

Close to €25billion was raised in taxes by the Exchequer in the first six months of 2018, €168million, or 0.7% higher than was anticipated at the start of the year. The figure is also €1.27billion or 5.4% higher than what was received in the same period of 2017. An extra 12,000 people have been recruited into the health service since 2015, and yet trolley numbers remain stubbornly high.

The Department now gobbles up €28 in every €100 the Government has to spend.