I am pleased to address the House on this important subject and to take the opportunity to update Deputies on the delivery by the Government on its commitments in the health area. Unfortunately, I was called away at short notice yesterday evening and I would like to thank my colleague, the Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children, Deputy Moffatt, for moving the Government's amendment to the motion in my absence.
It is almost inevitable that when there is debate about the health services the concentration is on deficiencies in the service. However, we should not dismiss our current level of achievement. A high number of people benefit every year from the availability of quality health and personal social services. Shortages and deficiencies exist in most health services, many of which absorb much greater amounts of money than our own.
The OECD recently gave a positive assessment of our health services relative to those in other countries. Its conclusion was "The Irish health system.. has resulted in a good provision of health care at a relatively low cost to the taxpayer." Therefore, there is much to be proud of in the core service provided. I do not wish to deny that problems exist in specific areas. However, the Government will not walk away from addressing those issues. It has set out clearly in An Action Programme for the Millennium its resolve to address, in a targeted fashion, the improvement of key aspects of our health and personal social services. Very significant increases in both capital and non-capital funding were provided in 1998. These increases have allowed me to make significant progress in implementing the Government programme.
Further funding will be required over the life of the Government to achieve all we have set out. I welcome the general support during this debate for an increase in the resources devoted to our health services. As a Government we are determined to carefully manage the economy and our success in this area should allow us to plan for increased resources being made available to health. Continued economic success is the key to improving our social services since this will supply the base on which progress can be sustained over the medium term.
This Government began to address the deficiencies which exist in our services almost immediately upon taking office. Given that these deficiencies existed during the time of the last Government, it is ironic that those same parties are now scrambling to convey their commitment to the health services. This Government was faced with a number of very urgent service needs in the health area and we responded by providing a very significant injection of funds in the latter half of 1997.
In the acute hospital sector I made funding available for high cost drug treatments many of which, although very expensive, are of a life saving nature. The sum of £3 million was made available for such drugs and a further sum of £2 million went towards the treatment of young haemophiliacs.
Progress was also made in the child care area, in particular, the problem of homeless children and children with emotional and behavioural difficulties. A total of £4.5 million was provided on an ongoing basis to cover the additional costs incurred by health boards in caring for these children and to introduce targeted measures intended to alleviate this problem. Funding of £6.9 million was provided to health boards to allow them to meet the increasing demand for subventions toward the cost of care of older people in private nursing homes. A package of once off funding was also provided to meet pressing needs in relation to the disabled and the elderly at the end of 1997. The sum of £4.8 million was provided for the purchase of equipment, aids and appliances by voluntary organisations working with people with physical and sensory disabilities and with older people. A further sum of £4.5 million was made available in relation to services for people with physical and sensory disability. That funding went towards the elimination of historical funding deficits in voluntary organisations which had built up over the previous years.
On taking office I was very concerned at the serious under investment in our capital programme which has occurred in the past. An extra £23 million in capital funding was provided in 1997. Among the issues this allowed to be addressed was the replacement of urgently required hospital equipment, the purchase of which had been postponed in previous years under the previous Administration, and tackling the serious backlog in fire prevention and maintenance works which had also built up.
The year 1998 has been the first full year in which the Government was able to address the necessary improvement in our health services. The net non-capital provision for health in 1998 shows a 10 per cent increase over and above the 1997 outturn. Further progress has also been made on the capital programme wherein we have achieved a 12 per cent increase over the 1997 outturn. I do not have sufficient time to set out all the progress that this has allowed during 1998. However, I wish to refer to some of the areas raised in the Opposition motion to assure the House the Government is already committed to addressing these issues. It is regrettable the Government is confronted by so many urgent problems due to the fact that the parties now on the Opposition benches failed to address these areas when they were in Government during a period of unprecedented economic buoyancy.
Regarding acute hospitals, additional non-capital funding of approximately £30 million has been provided in 1998 in respect of acute hospital services, not including the new Tallaght Hospital. This funding will meet the additional costs of developments initiated in recent years and allow for further developments in relation to the ambulance services, the cancer strategy, the opening of new units which are ready to be commissioned, development of accident and emergency services and increased funding for the waiting list initiative.
Some Deputies made a number of claims last night about waiting lists on which I would like to comment. Deputy Shatter noted that waiting lists rose by 6,000 from 26,000 at the end of 1996 to 32,000 at the end of 1997. He blamed the Government for the increase, but conveniently forgot to mention that the great bulk of the increase occurred in the first six months of 1997, when his party and other parties were still in office. His claim that waiting list figures "started to shrink during the lifetime of the previous Government" sounds unconvincing when waiting lists rose by 4,500 during the final six months of his party's participation in Government.
The reason for this increase of 4,500 is quite clear — the last Government cut waiting list funding by £4 million in 1997 from its 1996 figure. When I became Minister I increased this funding to £12 million for 1998 and this represents a 50 per cent increase in the waiting list allocation over that provided for last year by the previous Minister for Health, Deputy Noonan. I also made the funding available to agencies much earlier in the year than my predecessor did. As my colleague, the Minister of State at my Department, Deputy Moffatt, said last night, I also established a review group to advise on how best the waiting list funding could be utilised. In these circumstances Deputy Shatter lacks some credibility when he attempts to criticise the Government for its action on waiting lists.
Deputy Shatter also claims that the Government is seeking to suppress the true nature of hospital waiting lists to ensure that when statistical information becomes available it is outdated. I assure the House that this is simply not true. The information collected by my Department comes, not only from the health boards, but also from a range of voluntary hospitals. Each set of data has to be obtained from some 45 different health board hospitals and voluntary hospitals. The figures must then be collated and rigorously checked. I have emphasised the importance of validating all waiting list figures to ensure they present an accurate picture of the situation. It would be very irresponsible to publish waiting list figures before they have been properly validated. I assure the House that the waiting list figures for the quarter ending 31 March will be released as soon as a validated set is available. There is absolutely no question of delaying their publication in any way. The attention to detail on the production of validated and accurate waiting list information has always been a necessary feature of the waiting list initiative, under each successive Government, since it started in 1993.
On taking up office I was very concerned that there would be imbalances between services in different parts of the country, particularly in relation to hospital services. The Government is very conscious of the need to achieve regional self sufficiency in the specialties where it is possible to do so with high quality facilities. This is in keeping with the principles of the national health strategy. The Government's actions bear out its commitments in this regard. For example, I have proceeded with the implementation of the national cancer strategy which has as one of its main aims the provision of consultant oncology and haematology services in appropriate areas throughout the country. I have also announced that a cardiovascular strategy will be prepared and work on it is already well under way. As a practical indication of the reduction in regional imbalances, I announced plans for the provision of cardiac surgery and radiotherapy in Galway. Similarly, the major capital projects at various stages of development in Galway, Castlebar, Mullingar, Tullamore and Roscommon are testament to the Government's commitment to developing services in a targeted way throughout the country.
A number of Deputies have accused the Government of failing the mental handicap sector. I immediately refute these accusations. The moneys available to this sector in 1998, a sum of £16 million, are equivalent to the investment made in 1997 by the previous Government. However, the 1997 figure was the largest given by that Government during its term. I have matched this figure in my first year.
In addition, for the first time, I have agreed a major capital programme of £30 million for mental handicap services to be invested over the next four years. This is the first time there has been a multi-annual capital programme specifically for mental handicap services. The £5.25 million capital funding provided this year is the beginning of the programme of investment and will allow for the continued implementation of the assessment of needs report. By utilising all the resources available to me the mental handicap services can be assured that the facilities and support services required will be available.
The Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children, Deputy Moffat, last night set out the progress which has been achieved in relation to services for the elderly during the current year as part of a phased programme. Deputies will be aware of the increase in the population of older people, particularly the very elderly. Work has already begun in my Department on planning for the implications of the ageing of the population for our health services. Already bed utilisation problems are arising within our hospital system due to an inability to promptly discharge elderly patients from acute hospitals after appropriate treatment has been given. In dealing with the requirements of an ageing population one of my first areas of attention will be putting proper supports in place so that the elderly can be moved out of hospital to release beds for patients on waiting lists.
As I mentioned earlier, one of the priorities I had on taking up office was to commence the process of increasing the capital budget to a realistic level. It seems the last Government did not appreciate the importance of providing proper capital investment in our services. I am pleased to say I secured an increase of about 35 per cent in capital funding for the period 1998 to 2000 over the outlay for the previous three-year period when Fine Gael, the Labour Party and Democratic Left were in Government. The Exchequer capital allocation alone for 1998 is £147 million while £155 million and £165 million will be provided in the years 1999 and 2000 respectively. I am making every effort to further enhance the capital budget for 2001 and subsequent years in the context of future Estimates campaigns.
I am determined to ensure that the non-hospital sectors will get their fair share of available resources. The continuing care services, which cover areas such as psychiatry, mental and physical handicap, services for the elderly, etc., are in a process of change, the major change being the provision of community-based services as an alternative to institutional care. Evidence of this can be seen in the increase in the number of community residences, day hospitals, community nursing units, daycare centres and other community facilities which are being provided to replace services previously provided in institutional settings.
The motion before the House in the name of the Labour Party suggests that the present period of economic expansion should yield a dividend to the people in terms of increased investment in the public health system. There is some validity in this argument having regard to the substantial need for health services of which we are all aware. We have delivered on that commitment to a far greater extent than did the Labour Party when in Government.