Ministers in budget clash over €1bn health overspend
Ministers are set to clash on Monday over a projected €1 billion overrun in the Department of Health which has complicated Budget 2024 talks as they enter a crucial phase.
A meeting of the Government’s Cabinet Committee on Health will take place this afternoon where Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly will likely be asked to account for significant budgetary overruns in the HSE amid rising tension with the Department of Public Expenditure.
Last week, The Irish Times reported that senior officials believe a projected €1 billion overrun in the Department of Health will now limit Mr Donnelly’s room for manoeuvre in budgetary negotiations.
Top News Stories
- Saudi investor interested in buying strategic lands at Dublin Airport, McEvaddys say: An unnamed Saudi investor is in the hunt for strategic lands at Dublin Airport, as bidders press for reassurance about access to the runways and the road network.
- Man arrested after fatal hit-and-run incident in Bundoran: A man has been arrested in connection with a hit-and-run incident in Bundoran, Co Donegal, which claimed the life of a nine-year-old boy.
- EPA warns of air pollution threat to public health: Air quality in Ireland is generally good but there are persistent “concerning localised issues” threatening public health due to highly damaging fine particulate pollution, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
- Former bank on College Green may be converted to social housing: Dublin City Council is considering buying one of the most prominent buildings on Dublin’s College Green, the former Ulster Bank, so it can be converted into social housing.
- Deliveroo sought changes to Irish labour law amid claim students ‘desire’ platform work: Deliveroo told the Government over two years ago it was aware of a “significant desire” among international students to work on its platform despite legislation barring them from holding accounts.
- Ireland’s weather today: Today will start breezy with sunny spells and showers, mainly in Ulster, Connacht and Munster. It will be drier in the east and southeast. Showers will become isolated by the afternoon. Highest temperatures of 16 to 18 degrees with moderate to fresh, gusty south to southwest winds. Rain will develop in the west around midnight and will spread eastwards overnight.
- Happening today: The Central Statistics Office will publish Population and Migration Estimates 2023, while the Dublin City Joint Policing Committee is also scheduled to meet.
News from around the World
- Budget drones prove their value in billion dollar war: They are made of plastic or plastic foam, weigh only a few pounds and are often launched simply by having a soldier throw them into the air as if tossing a javelin.
- Nasa’s first asteroid samples land on Earth after release from Osiris-Rex spacecraft: Nasa’s first asteroid samples taken from deep space have parachuted into the desert in the US state of Utah. In a flyby of Earth, the Osiris-Rex spacecraft released the sample capsule from 101,390km (63,000 miles) out.
- Security tightened in occupied parts of Donetsk as Ukraine military claims advances: Kremlin-installed officials in eastern Ukraine have tightened security in occupied parts of the Donetsk region as Kyiv said its military had broken through Russia’s lines in southeastern Ukraine and injured senior Russian officers in a missile strike on Crimea.
The Big Read
- The ‘mother scam’ – She thought she’d sent €3,400 to her pregnant daughter: “I got a text from who I thought was my daughter on July 18th telling me that she had a temporary phone number for the immediate future, as she had dropped her phone,” begins a mail from a reader who we shall call Penny, although that is not her real name, writes Conor Pope.
Top Sports news
- Memorable Ireland victory over South Africa built on splendid defence: In many ways, the Springboks made this incredible game, perhaps the best pool match ever, more their kind of contest. The initial exchanges were like the opening scenes in Gladiator, and so it continued for the entirety of the 80 minutes.
- Leona Maguire a driving force as Europe retain the Solheim Cup: Leona Maguire lives and breathes the Solheim Cup. For the player from the lakes and drumlins of Cavan, the tournament has become part of her DNA, and once again, in the hills above the Costa del Sol, the 28 year old proved a driving force for Europe as the team made history in a drawn match by retaining the crystal trophy and lifting it for the third time in a row.
Picture of the Day
The best from Opinion
- Why did it take a blockade at the Dáil for us to take the threat of the far right seriously?: Hopefully last Wednesday’s chaos outside Leinster House will be a turning point in countering hate on our streets. Now we have footage of a recognisable politician needing garda assistance and an escort from his place of work. But it’s not like he was the first person to face this rage, which has been bubbling up for years, writes Una Mullally.
Culture and Life & Style highlights
- ‘Get off my son you little s**t’ – Some adults appear to forget they’re attending children’s matches: I took my son to an Ireland match recently. And it was mostly magical, not least because we got to celebrate an unexpected Irish goal. But also, as a fellow Liverpool fan, he was thrilled to catch a glimpse, in real life, of Virgil van Dijk and Cody Gakpo.
- Striking Hollywood writers reach ‘tentative’ deal with studios: Hollywood’s writers union reached a preliminary labour agreement with major studios on Sunday in a deal expected to end one of two strikes that have halted most film and television production and cost the California economy billions.
Today’s Business
- Tax incentives called for by banking body to encourage home retrofitting: Some 60 per cent of consumers say tax incentives would encourage them to invest in home energy upgrades, as cost is the main factor deterring them from making their homes more energy efficient.
- Pilita Clark: What Burberry’s Tube station stunt taught me about the marketed mind: Is there no end to the marketed mind? Is any facet of modern life safe from the remorseless effort to brand, promote and sell? This question occurred as I was heading home from London’s Heathrow airport on the Tube late last Sunday and, ambling on to the platform at Bond Street station, got a fairly serious surprise, writes Pilita Clark.
Letters to the Editor
Sir, – While we wait to see how the €6.4 billion budgetary package is to be allocated, notwithstanding what’s known already about cost of living, tax changes and public spending amounts already announced, one other issue that touches upon all this is the intended establishment in Ireland for the first time of a sovereign wealth fund, an idea floated some time ago.
While the principal purpose of such a fund is to invest extra capital monies into markets or other investments, and to stabilise an economy to avoid potential future volatility, it’s important that we don’t forget to consider the public expenditure element of €5.2 billion of the current budgetary package at the same time as the Government considers how it may want to deal with an intended wealth fund, as the objectives of both might well be the same. The answer to this point may well come down to timing of the set-up of the fund.
Quite apart from questions of volatility, such as sudden rises in inflation, it would be interesting to hear what progress the Government has made in its thinking about a possible wealth fund, when it’s likely to be set up, and to what extent, if at all, the purposes to which that fund might be put relate to, or are connected in any way, with the Government’s intended €5.2 billion public spending plans. – Yours, etc, ALASTAIR CONAN, Coulsdon, London.
Video & Podcast Highlights
- In The News podcast: Sallins Train Robbery: a miscarriage of justice with no closure
Review of the day
- Stakeknife’s Dirty War: Revealing insider account of brutal IRA double agent: Richard O’Rawe comes with perfect credentials to write this book. He was an IRA man and he knew Freddie Scappaticci aka Stakeknife from their time together in prison, writes Stephen Walker.
Why not try one of our Crosswords & Puzzles?
Like this?
Get the best content direct to your inbox by signing up to one of our newsletters