Vol. 492 No. 4
58 Ms Shortall asked the Minister for Health and Children the amount of expenditure required to keep existing health services up to an appropriate level of quality; the areas, in his view, which must receive additional investment in the medium and long-term to meet this level of quality; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14239/98]
Additional funding is generally required in respect of existing health services to cover such items as pay increases due under national agreements, non-pay inflation, the roll forward costs of developments where they were not fully operational in the previous year and the impact of new legislation and judicial decisions. In addition to the maintenance of existing services, the Government is committed to further developing the priority areas set out in An Action Programme for the Millennium and my Department's strategy statement, Working for Health and Well Being.
In 1998 the Government provided a net additional £242 million in non-capital fundingrepresenting a 10 per cent increase over and above the 1997 outturn. In the first instance, this funding will allow services in 1998 to be delivered at a similar level and quality to that approved in previous years. In addition, this funding will allow for the further development of priority services such as child care, mental handicap, physical disability, mental health, dental, accident and emergency services and a range of other initiatives, including increased funding for the waiting list initiative. In addition, capital funding of £147.25 million will be provided by the Exchequer in 1998 and this is some £15.75 million, or 12 per cent, greater than that made available in 1997.
In relation to the investment required over the medium to long-term, I am currently in discussions with the Minister for Finance on the provision of additional resources for the health services over the next three years. Within this process I will be pressing for the necessary non-capital funding to allow me maintain the quality of our core services and also to develop those aspects of our services prioritised in the Government programme and my Department's strategy statement. In relation to capital funding, I have already agreed figures for 1999 and 2000. A sum of £155 million will be available in 1999, with £165 million for 2000.
