Extra funding of over €300 million this year for the health service is being sought by the Minister for Health.
Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill told the Oireachtas Committee on Health that this comprises €300m for day to day spending, and €2.1m for capital spending and is less than 1% of the overall health budget.
She said that the largest overrun covers non-pay across acute hospitals, community care and the primary care services.
An amount of €40m is a once off payment to voluntary hospitals to stabilise their finances, but she said this comes with a requirement for much tighter governance and controls, as well as stricter recruitment, seven-day rostering, and adoption of national IT systems.
Another €10m is for the Section 39 pay agreement providing a 9.25% pay increase agreed earlier this year.
In relation to the capital side, €2.1m is for Brexit-related works at Rosslare Europort for import checks and inspections in behalf of several State agencies, including the HSE which part funds it.
The minister told the committee that health already accounts for one in every four euro of Government spending.
She said that productivity has to substantially improve, noting that outpatient appointments per consultant have fallen by about 30% over the past decade and another 6% in the last year, while consultant hours have increased by nearly 10% annually.
Minister Carroll MacNeill said the workforce is up 25% and there have been 1,330 more acute beds put in since 2019.
She said her approach is to move away from reliance on marginal funding increases and staff additions as the sole solution to improving services.
The minister said that the supplementary estimate is among the lowest supplementary dependencies, excluding Covid, in many years.
The National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (NPHDB) has said that a new completion programme for the National Children's Hospital has been submitted by builders BAM.
It said this is now being reviewed.
The NPHDB said the employer's representative will soon determine whether this programme is compliant or not compliant with the contract.
The last completion programme had indicated a 24 November substantial completion date, but this will not be met.
The NPHDB is responsible for overseeing the design, build and equipping of the new hospital.
It said that a realistic date of substantial completion is within the gift of the main contractor, BAM, to commit to and deliver on.
Sinn Féin Health Spokesperson David Cullinane expressed concern that there was still no substantial completion date for the new hospital.
Minister Carroll MacNeill said that a meeting with builder BAM UK, the hospital development board and others is set for this Friday and early access to the hospital is expected on 3 December.
She added that she was also working to reduce the period that will be needed for commissioning the new hospital.
The NPHDB said that its immediate priority is to get additional early access for Children's Health Ireland as soon as possible.
It said early access is important so it can begin loading medical equipment for integration with the new digital building, and the new electronic health record system.
