HEALTH:An extra €35 million has been provided in the Budget to improve cancer services and the Minister for Health, Mary Harney, said much of this would go on hiring extra specialists in cancer care.
She could not say what percentage increase the €35 million was on the existing budget for cancer services but felt it was a "significant increase".
The Minister said the State's new director of cancer control,Prof Tom Keane, had not put a specific figure yet on the amount he would need to implement the plan to have cancer services delivered mainly through eight centres of excellence within two years.
"Much of the implementation involves the redirection of resources. We've invested an extra €1 billion in cancer care over the last decade," she said.
Some of the cancer budget, for which Prof Keane will be responsible, will also go on the roll-out of a national cervical screening programme, which Ms Harney said she hoped would be implemented quickly but not before the end of March.
There is also extra money for BreastCheck and increased radiotherapy capacity.
Last night Fine Gael and Labour said they had grave doubts the additional funding for the National Cancer Strategy was enough.
Meanwhile, a number of health charges have been increased in the Budget. The cost for attending A&E without a doctor's letter of referral will go up from €60 to €66 from January 1st.
The cost of private and semi-private beds in public hospitals will also increase by 10 per cent, which is bound to have a significant knock-on effect on the cost of health insurance next year.
And the monthly threshold for refunds under the Drugs Payments Scheme will increase from €85 to €90. There is no change to medical card eligibility.
Overall an extra €344 million for current spending in health and an extra €52 million for capital spending in health was provided in the Budget over and above what was announced in the estimates.
This will bring the total health budget to €16.1 billion with €14.9 billion of it going to the HSE. The rate of increase in health spending is not as great as last year at 9 per cent and will require "very prudent management" of resources, Ms Harney said.
The extra money allocated yesterday includes €110 million for the new Fair Deal scheme for funding long term care for the elderly. Ms Harney said she hoped legislation underpinning the scheme would be published within 10 days and that it would be introduced early next year.
Some €50 million has also been provided to improve services for people with disabilities. This will include providing more respite care and staff such as speech and language therapists.
An additional €46 million is also provided for the early childcare payment.
And there will also be an extra €10 million next year for the National Treatment Purchase Fund and an extra €18 million for immunisation programmes so that Hepatitis B and pneumococcal vaccines can be added to the childhood immunisation programme.
Asked if there was money to reduce nurses' hours as promised by next June, Ms Harney said this had to be cost neutral and would be "a big big challenge". She confirmed additional resources would have to be provided for any money awarded to staff under benchmarking.
Ms Harney also said there was no specific extra money for new consultant posts, but added that junior doctor positions would be replaced by consultant jobs.