Ministers in budget clash over €1bn health overspend
Ministers are set to clash on Monday over a projected €1 billion overrun in the Department of Health which has complicated Budget 2024 talks as they enter a crucial phase.
A meeting of the Government’s Cabinet Committee on Health will take place this afternoon where Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly will likely be asked to account for significant budgetary overruns in the HSE amid rising tension with the Department of Public Expenditure.
Last week, The Irish Times reported that senior officials believe a projected €1 billion overrun in the Department of Health will now limit Mr Donnelly’s room for manoeuvre in budgetary negotiations.
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Today’s Business
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Letters to the Editor
Sir, – While we wait to see how the €6.4 billion budgetary package is to be allocated, notwithstanding what’s known already about cost of living, tax changes and public spending amounts already announced, one other issue that touches upon all this is the intended establishment in Ireland for the first time of a sovereign wealth fund, an idea floated some time ago.
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While the principal purpose of such a fund is to invest extra capital monies into markets or other investments, and to stabilise an economy to avoid potential future volatility, it’s important that we don’t forget to consider the public expenditure element of €5.2 billion of the current budgetary package at the same time as the Government considers how it may want to deal with an intended wealth fund, as the objectives of both might well be the same. The answer to this point may well come down to timing of the set-up of the fund.
Quite apart from questions of volatility, such as sudden rises in inflation, it would be interesting to hear what progress the Government has made in its thinking about a possible wealth fund, when it’s likely to be set up, and to what extent, if at all, the purposes to which that fund might be put relate to, or are connected in any way, with the Government’s intended €5.2 billion public spending plans. – Yours, etc, ALASTAIR CONAN, Coulsdon, London.
Video & Podcast Highlights
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Review of the day
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