Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform Paschal Donohoe has said he is working "intensely" with Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly to tackle overspending in the health budget.
Minister Donohoe was speaking at the launch of his department’s Mid-Year Expenditure Report which details expenditure across Government departments to the end of June.
It is one of several documents prepared in advance of Budget 2024.
The report details that current spending in health at the end of June was €328 million or 2.9% ahead of profile which is "largely due to higher than expected spending on the acute hospitals sector".
Minister Donohoe said: "The signs are that figure will grow".
He went on to say that his discussions with Minister Donnelly - which continued this week - will aim to "get the balance right between not upsetting overall budget plans and meeting health needs that we know are there".
He would not be drawn on what the final possible scale of the spending overrun and supplementary estimate might be but that it would form part of the estimates process for Budget day planning.
He also said there have been supplementary health expenditure in past budgets but he does not want to be in a position "where we can continually fund overruns".
The Department of Health was allocated a record €23.1 billion in last year's budget.
It accounts for 26% of overall core Government spending. Its budget has been increased by an average of €1.4bn a year from 2019, according to the report.
The expenditure review showed an overspend of €458m or 28% in the budget for the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth.
According to the report, this is mostly due to expenditure on accommodating refugees from the war in Ukraine and other international protection seekers.
This overrun is expected to be met from the reserve already set aside in last year’s budget.
On the capital side, the report details an underspend in housing which is €233m or 28.6% behind profile which is described as "in part due to planning and construction delays".
There’s an overspend in education which is €166m or 39.9% above profile which is blamed on ‘high construction inflation’ and providing for additional school places for Ukrainian children and other children from the International Protection system.
