The health service is facing a bill of about €7.4 million for destroying obsolete personal protective equipment (PPE) originally bought for staff during the pandemic.
In a briefing document submitted to the Dáil Public Accounts Committee (PAC), the Health Service Executive (HSE) said it was planned to dispose of out-of-date PPE by the end of 2025.
“The estimated cost of storage during 2025 is €1.3 million,“ it said. ”The overall cost of destruction of these obsolete stocks is circa €7.4 million.
“The HSE has tendered for and awarded contracts for the disposal of all obsolete PPE. Due to the nature of the PPE, it is important that the destruction is carried out by a qualified company in line with environmental and safety requirements.”
RM Block
The HSE also told the PAC it was likely additional Covid-19 vaccines worth about €12 million, which have reached their expiry date, will have to be written off this year. This is in addition to the €11.1 million written off last year in respect of Covid-19 vaccines that had reached their expiration date.
The briefing document provided to the PAC said the HSE was required to ensure there was an adequate supply of vaccines for the citizens of Ireland.
“The decision as to what those levels are is based on the advice of the Chief Medical Officer,” it said. “Under an EU-negotiated agreement, the HSE is contractually bound to purchase an agreed supply of these vaccines until the end of 2026.”
The HSE said it was likely that it would write off a further €12 million in 2025.
“This is based on a number of factors including, most notably, clinical advice that new-generation vaccines are to be administered once they are available, combined with a drop in public uptake.”
Separately, the Cabinet sub-committee on health is expected to hear in the coming days that the HSE will need supplementary funding of €260 million this year.
Briefing documents drawn up by the Department of Health also say the HSE will have achieved cumulative savings of €633 million by the end of 2025.
It suggests the €260 million in additional exchequer funding is required to fill a gap between the €1.75 billion in extra money provided by the Government last year for the health service and a permanent increase in funding of €1.5 billion allocated in the budget for 2025.
The Department of Health warns that while the HSE is on track to meet its overall savings targets of €633 million for 2025, some of these savings were generated from once-off measures this year and there will be a challenge in 2026 to deliver these on a permanent basis.
The department’s report says the €633 million cumulative savings target, to be achieved to live within agreed spending limits, had been devolved to the new health service regions. They would have their own individual plans.
“Pay savings target of €318 million has been challenging to achieve, particularly in agency pay, where we see overspends on agency [personnel] are being offset by lower recruitment.
“The non-pay savings target of €315 million is being achieved across multiple areas, including medical and surgical supplies, laboratory costs, postage, travel, conferences, office expenses and professional services.”
In addition, spending by the State Claims Agency, which handles claims against State agencies, is forecast to be about €100 million under budget, the report says.
