The health service is to receive over €29 billion next year in total funding – its highest ever allocation.
It means there will be an extra €1.6 billion for day-to-day spending next year.
There will be over €27.3bn for day-to-day services and €1.7bn for capital developments, including the new National Children’s Hospital and the new National Maternity Hospital.
It represents an increase of €160m in capital spending.
The staff ceiling for the health service will be set at 139,744.
An extra 1.8 million home support hours will be provided to help people remain at home and leave hospital.
Access to free contraception will be extended to those aged 37 years. Currently, it is free for those aged 17-35.
Health efficiencies will be sought through greater use of theatres, outpatient clinics and diagnostics.
Health will get extra funding for the Child & Adolescent Mental Health Service, including new ADHD pathways.
The Budget commits to 33,000 extra hours of free counselling for men, young people and the LGBTQ+ Community.
It also promises €18m next year to develop oral health access.
This is to improve access to oral health and orthodontic services for children, including reducing waiting lists in the School Dental Programme, and commencing an improvement programme for access to more complex dental treatment.
An extra €196m will go towards developing older people’s services and €108m for mental health.
Funding of €7m is for reform of general practice, allowing for more out of hours care in the six health regions.
The Irish Hospital Consultants Association said the current spending overruns in the HSE, which could reach €1bn by the end of the year, points to an inability to set these budgets on a realistic footing, properly accounting for increasing demand for care and treatments.
The Irish Nurses & Midwives Organisation said its members will be disappointed that the Budget focus in health appears to be on driving productivity, rather than addressing the root causes of long waiting times and overcrowding – insufficient staffing and capacity.
The Irish Patients Association said that while a record health budget is welcome, patients cannot be treated by a budget headline.
It asked how much of the additional €1.6bn is needed simply to stand still, meeting existing pay, demographic, inflationary and other unavoidable costs, and how much is available to provide additional services.
It said that with the workforce ceiling set to rise by 3,138 posts, people need to know how many of those are genuinely additional frontline staff and where they will go.
