The Minister for Health, Mr Martin, has said he is not going to start "horse-trading" with individual health boards on the amount of money they are allocated to fund services this year.
His comments follow an appeal by the North Eastern Health Board for extra money after members of the board rejected a service plan which had been drawn up for the region under the budget which had been allocated it by the Department of Health.
Speaking to reporters in Dublin yesterday, Mr Martin gave health boards no hope of receiving extra money.
"If we got into the business of horse-trading on funding with each health board around the country, the entire accountability edifice would collapse," he said.
He has directed the NEHB to provide services within the €483 million it has been allocated.
Mr Martin said health boards would have to manage within their budgets. "It's about management of the allocation and prioritisation," he said, adding that it would be "a very tight" year.
Issues which would have to be looked at in the context of priorities, he said, were hiring out hotels for meetings and overtime payments, but he ruled out job cuts. "At the moment we have 96,000 jobs in the health service. I don't see us going below that ceiling."
Furthermore, he said, while the year ahead would be challenging, he was still "happy" being Minister for Health.
"It's a very, very challenging and difficult portfolio. I realise events will happen that will put me in the spotlight but that's life as Minister for Health and you have to accept that."