Irish Medical Organisation calls for part of windfall taxes to be used for infrastructure investment in healthcare

IMO President: "Apple tax windfall provides once-in-a-generation opportunity to address infrastructure deficit in Irish health services and ensure our services have the capacity to deliver timely healthcare to our citizens”

 Thursday 12th September 2024. The Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) has called on the Government to use some of the proceeds from the Apple Tax windfall to address major infrastructural issues in the Irish health services.

On Tuesday, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that Apple must pay the Irish Exchequer €13 billion in backdated taxes.

Speaking today, Dr. Denis McCauley, President of the IMO, said; “for over a decade the IMO has called for significant investment in our health infrastructure which has been a consequence of poor capacity and workforce planning and years of austerity and under investment.  With the significant growth in population over recent years and in particular the increase in the health needs of our older population we must use this opportunity to address the year round crisis in our health services.”

Dr. McCauley continued: “This windfall tax provides a once-in-a-generation opportunity to undertake an aggressive investment programme that could finally deliver on increased bed capacity in our acute and rehabilitation services and upgrading current infrastructure to ensure it meets modern standards for the delivery of healthcare.”

Dr. McCauley warned that as the Irish population increases and ages, pressure will increase significantly to provide beds and hospitals for those needing care. 

In the last decade the population has grown by over 14% to 5.3 million in 2023, with over 15% of the population now aged 65 or over.  There has been little or no increase in in-patient beds in the last 20 years and hospital waiting lists have almost tripled to over 896,000 in the decade between 2013 and 2023.

The recent pre-budget submission of the IMO called for action on a number of fronts and made the following calls in respect of infrastructure:

• Increase the number of new inpatient beds from 3,438 to 5,000 under the Acute Hospital Bed Capacity Expansion Plan to meet the needs of our growing and ageing population.

• Provide sufficient capital funding and planning to support the expansion of acute inpatient beds in full and on time.

• Develop and implement an adjacent plan to increase psychiatric inpatient beds to meet population needs.

• Increase the number of rehabilitative care beds, long-term nursing home beds and the financing of home care packages.