Five major teaching hospitals in Dublin, which had feared a €50 million shortfall in financing this year, say they have had a "positive" meeting with the Eastern Regional Health Authority (ERHA) on the issue.
The ERHA says it is confident it has the funding to buy the same level of services from the hospitals this year as last.
It will also be able to buy additional services.
"This year we have to live within what we have got which is significantly more than last year, though not as much as I would like," the chief executive officer of the ERHA, Mr Donal O'Shea, told The Irish Times.
But, he added: "We know we are in business to commission everything we commissioned last year and, over and above that, new developments."
A spokesman for the five hospitals - Tallaght, Beaumont, St James's, St Vincent's and the Mater - said their view following their meeting with the ERHA was more positive than last week.
The Mater Hospital said it was experiencing a shortfall in funding but, said a spokesman, there are negotiations with the ERHA and the hospital is "looking forward to a positive conclusion to these negotiations".
Hospitals in Dublin, Wicklow and Kildare are no longer provided with annual funding increased by annual percentage amounts as in the past. Instead, Mr O'Shea said, "we are purchasing agreed services for an agreed sum".
The Minister for Health and Children, Mr Martin, sounded a warning note on hospital funding yesterday.
Asked in a Morning Ireland interview on RTÉ Radio One about additional funding increases this year he said: "We won't be providing additional money from here to the end of the year in terms of the budget I've been allocated."