Property sell-off: More than €30 million which was surrendered by the health services to the Exchequer as part of the proceeds from the sale of land and other surplus assets in recent years is to be returned to fund mental health development projects this year.
The Department of Finance has agreed to provide around €36 million in additional funding to pay for capital projects in the mental health area.
A spokesman for the Health Service Executive (HSE) said that the bulk of the money involved - more than €20 million - represented the return of funding surrendered to the Exchequer from the sale of land at St Loman's Hospital in Dublin in 2004.
The spokesman said the HSE had also provided money to the Exchequer from the disposal of other surplus assets in 2005.
The agreement to return the money from the sale of assets was made between the Department of Health and the Department of Finance as part of the sanction for the overall €550 million capital programme for the health services this year.
The HSE was informed of the move by the Department of Health Secretary General Michael Scanlan last month.
"The €36 million in respect of the sale of surplus assets brought to account as an Exchequer extra receipt has been noted and the Minister for Finance has agreed that it will be made available to the HSE on the bringing forward of suitable priority capital projects in the mental health area," Mr Scanlan said.
It is understood that the health services are also to receive €16.5 million in funding for capital projects this year from the Government's new Dormant Accounts initiative. This involves the State taking charge of funds lying unused for many years in banks and other financial institutions around the State.
Around €70 million is also to be provided by the Government for capital spending on information technology projects in the health service in the current year.
A number of capital development projects planned by the health service including a new National Rehabilitation Hospital and developments at Longford/Westmeath General Hospital in Mullingar and at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda have been put on hold pending the completion of a detailed cost benefit analysis.
As part of its sanction for the 2006 healthcare capital programme, the Department of Finance insisted that such a value-for-money report had to be carried out on all projects costing more than €30 million.
Beaumont Hospital has also confirmed in recent days that its plans for a new building with 40 additional dialysis places have been suspended for the present.
The Department of Health told the HSE this project should not proceed pending the submission of a business case to establish whether the development of the facility at Beaumont represented better value for money than procuring the required dialysis capacity from the private sector.
