Minister for Health James Reilly has said no hospital will close either due to budget cuts or health service reconfiguration.
However, he told the Oireachtas health committee this morning there was going to be a rationalisation of community nursing units. This is "unavoidable", he said.
"We have been hit with three different issues in relation to the community nursing unit system - money, the moratorium on recruitment and standard of the different units."
HSE chief executive Cathal Magee said that of the 5,800 long stay public beds, only about 30 per cent - or 2,000 beds - were deemed to meet the required standard in relation to their physical environment. He said addressing this issue could require a capital investment of between €600 million and €900 million.
He said he had not seen a list published by the media today of community nursing units that had reportedly been earmarked for closure. This reveiew had not been seen by HSE management, he added.
However, he said there were "significant" issues around viability of these units under current financial constraints.
Dr Reilly said there was "absolutely no doubt" the health service was facing its most challenging year to date and it was possible the HSE would end the year with a €300 million deficit. He said “demand-led schemes” as a result of having to provide new medical cards, for example, would cost €160 million.
He said a 2 per cent increase in VAT would cost more than €50 million and the introduction of the European directive on agency workers – which means they have to be paid the same as full time staff – would also present “huge costs”.
Dr Reilly said there were new sick pay arrangements in place but there was no additional money to deal with this.