The Tánaiste and Minister for Health, Ms Harney, is planning to sell off surplus land attached to hospitals and health facilities around the country in an attempt to generate funds for services, write Martin Wall and Eithne Donnellan.
A spokesman for the Tánaiste told The Irish Times last night that Ms Harney had ordered a review of the portfolio of land owned by all hospitals and health boards.
Under the plan, land that is considered to be surplus to requirement will be sold off, a move which could generate several hundred million euro.
A spokesman said that land and property owned and used by all elements of the health services - acute hospitals, psychiatric services and community care - would be examined as part of the review.
He said all funds generated by the sale of assets in the sector would be used for health purposes.
The only exception to this will be land that is earmarked as the Department of Health's contribution towards social and affordable housing.
During the summer, The Irish Times revealed that the Cabinet had agreed to sell land attached to psychiatric hospitals to provide funding for the development of mental health services. However, a spokesman for the Tánaiste said last night that the new proposal was "bigger".
The spokesman said it was too early at this stage to talk about how much the land sale could generate or where the funds released would be invested.
"We have to see first what exactly is out there," he said.
Ms Harney is understood to have asked a group of senior officials in her Department to organise a professional assessment and evaluation of "the entire health estate".
It is understood that in the earlier survey of land attached to psychiatric hospitals, more than 200 acres were identified for possible sale.
Among the psychiatric service lands identified for sale earlier this year were: 30 acres at Newcastle Hospital in Co Wicklow; 20 acres at St Joseph's Hospital, Limerick; as well as a large land bank at St Ita's Hospital in Portrane in north Dublin.
The 34 acres of land attached to the Central Mental Hospital in Dublin are likely to be among the first to be sold and could generate up to €70 million.
The Tánaiste is currently engaged in negotiations with the Department of Finance on spending plans for the health services for next year.
Health spending for 2005 is expected to rise to at least €11 billion. This year the Government spent €10.08 billion on health.
However, the Department of Heath has calculated that it will now need at least €550 million more just to meet the rising pay bill for around 100,000 health care staff.
Ms Harney will come under pressure to secure money for more hospital beds and additional medical cards as part of the negotiations on the Budget.
Meanwhile, the organisers of a weekend protest over conditions in hospital accident and emergency departments, where patients routinely have to wait hours on trolleys for beds, are planning another demonstration in two weeks.
Up to 200 people took part in a march through Dublin city centre on Saturday that was organised by the recently formed Patients Together support group.
At a subsequent rally outside the Dáil, patients who had spent days on trolleys in A&E units appealed to the Minister for Health to do something to ensure others would not continue to suffer as they had done.
Ms Janette Byrne, who sparked the current outcry over conditions in A&E two weeks ago by organising a protest outside the Mater Hospital when her mother was on a trolley there, said many families had e-mailed Patients Together with their experiences of waiting on trolleys in A&E departments across the State. These will be presented to Ms Harney when Patients Together meets her on Friday.
"I can't see Mary Harney having a quick-fix solution to the problem when we meet her on Friday, so we are not going away until there is an improvement. We will continue to demonstrate until they come up with some half-decent solutions," she said.