Health

Budget bailouts a recurring event for health sector - budgetary advisor

Parliamentary Budgetary Office report summarises the extraordinary growth in health spending over the last eight years

Stephen Donnelly, the Minsiter for Health: In 2015, health spending amounted to €13.34 billion, while the initial allocation for 2023 was just over €24 billion - an 80 per cent increase. Picture: Sam Boal / RollingNews.ie

Bailouts of the health budget have become an annual occurrence, while this year’s health spending looks like it will exceed its budget again, according to a new paper from the Parliamentary Budgetary Office (PBO).

The PBO is a key source of financial and budgetary intelligence for Oireachtas. Its latest report found that record growth in health spending over recent years is being driven by pay, medicines, fees associated with demand-led schemes, and capital costs to ...