Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 8 September 2022
1669. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the expenditure of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan funding of €75m for e-health and ICT by programme to date in tabular form; the amount remaining; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42614/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Recovery and Resilience facility (RRF) is funded by the European Union - NextGenerationEU. The National Recovery and Resilience Plan for Ireland will provide funding for two important digital projects in the health sector. It will part fund the investment required to deliver the Integrated Financial Management System and also provide an important source of funding for the ePharmacy programme and investment in community ICT. 2022 is the first year that Health can draw down from the RRF. Actual drawdowns will depend on the performance of vendors contracted to provide key deliverables, and the HSE being satisfied with the quality of those deliverables. The HSE have estimated that the total expenditure in 2022 will be in the order of €9 million. There is a total of €75m allocated for digital health projects over the lifetime of the EU RRF programme. The HSE estimate at least a further €20 million of expenditure in 2023.
Disbursement of funds is performance based and funds requested by project will be based on expenditure incurred for milestones and targets achieved. No application for funds under the facility for the suite of digital health projects has yet been made. Payment requests will be made through the coordinating national implementing body, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, at the appropriate times agreed by them under operational arrangements with the European Commission.
Any funding that cannot be drawn down in 2022, because of the timing of the digital health projects versus the schedule for drawing down funds as defined by the EU, can and will be drawn down in 2023.
