Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 16 January 2013
1106. Deputy Róisín Shortall asked the Minister for Health the projected accumulated savings for each month of 2013 for each of the savings measures identified under the total 2013 saving of €323 million for the primary care reimbursement service in the 2012 Health Service Executive service plan [1815/13]
View answerThe Estimate agreed for the Health Votes includes ambitious savings targets for the PCRS (medical cards and drug costs), many of which will require legislation to achieve. A reduction in expenditure of €323m is required against the projection in 2013. The HSE Board made a decision to introduce an additional €60m in cost reductions in the community schemes in the National Service Plan. These additional savings are to be achieved through a range of efficiency measures; therefore, the total reduction required in 2013 is €383m.
The HSE's National Service Plan has just been finalised for 2013. The HSE is now working with the relevant programme directors to profile their budgets appropriately. It is not possible at this stage to provide details of how individual savings measures will be profiled across 2013, particularly in light of the fact that legislation is required for some of them.
