Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party)
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Question 626: To ask the Minister for Health if he will provide figures for the hospital budget deficit coming into this year and the projected deficit going into next year for St. James's, the Mater, Beaumont, St. Vincent's and Tallaght Hospital. [35977/11]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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All hospitals are required to operate within their allocated budgets and to meet the service level activity targets that the hospital has agreed for 2011. I recognise that the management of funding allocations by public hospitals poses a serious budgetary challenge.

The Health Service Executive has advised me that St. James's Hospital will break even in the current year which will allow it to commence in 2012 in a healthy financial position. St. James Hospital had no opening deficit at the start of 2011. Tallaght Hospital carried an accumulated deficit of approximately €22m into the current year and is projecting a deficit of €11m for 2011. The hospital has implemented cost containment measures that has seen it break even in each of the last three months, and is projecting a break-even run rate each month to year end. In that context, the hospital will commence 2012 in an improved financial environment. The hospital will, however, have to deal with its accumulated deficit in the future within its overall financial resources.

St. Vincent's University Hospital carried a €1m accumulated deficit into the current year and is projecting an overspend of €7m or 3.5% for 2011. Cost containment plans are being considered in order to deal with this carrying deficit. The Mater Hospital carried an accumulated deficit of €1.86m into the current year and is projecting a deficit of €2m for the current year. It will also carry this deficit into 2012 and will have to deal with it within its overall resources. Beaumont Hospital carried an accumulated deficit of €0.340m into the current year and is projecting a €3m deficit in 2011. As with all other hospitals with deficits, Beaumont will carry this deficit into 2012 and will have to deal with it within the overall financial resources available to it.

I am on record as saying that every individual agency must take responsibility and do everything possible to stay within budget while delivering their planned level of service. Under its reform programme the Government has committed to achieving greater efficiencies in patient care and service delivery. These efficiencies will not be easy to achieve but I am certain that over time they will help to ensure that more people get access to services within a given quantum of funding. In this regard it is important that the management capacity in our public hospitals is sufficiently robust to meet these challenges.

The Deputy will also be aware that it is the role of the Special Delivery Unit, which I recently established, to address issues around the better and more efficient delivery of health services. The work of the SDU will contribute significantly to improving outcomes for patients and to greater efficiencies in the system to avoid any budgetary overruns, while at the same time endeavouring to ensure the maintenance of services in line with the commitments given by the HSE and public hospitals.

Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party)
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Question 627: To ask the Minister for Health if hospital budget deficits are counted as part of the overall Exchequer budget deficit in the national accounts. [35978/11]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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The Health Act 2004 provided for the establishment of the Health Service Executive with its own Vote and Accounting Officer with effect from 1 January 2005, and requires the Executive to operate within the limits of its Vote as approved by the Dail. All hospitals, both statutory and voluntary, are required to operate within their allocated budgets and to meet the service level activity targets that the hospital has agreed for 2011. The HSE is, therefore, obliged to comply with the principles set out in Public Financial Procedures and has, as one of its central objectives, the requirement to keep overall expenditure with the approved voted limits.

Any deficit which arises within a statutory hospital owned and operated directly by the Health Service Executive, must therefore be funded by a surplus elsewhere. Voluntary hospitals are funded on a net basis by the Executive, and a service level agreement is signed between the hospital and the Executive that the hospital will operate within its approved funding and any deficit is a matter for the hospital and not the State. On this basis, hospital deficits do not form part of the overall Government deficit in the national accounts.