Martin Wall

Ukrainian authorities want to buy electronic warfare-jamming equipment, unarmed surveillance drones and armoured personnel carriers with new funding provided by the Irish Government, Ministers have been told. See @IrishTimes

Potentially tens of thousands of health staff appointed or promoted since December 2008 are liable to be rostered to work over an extended day/week and managers should prepare to implement these arrangements, the head of the HSE has said. See @IrishTimes

Some Gov departments seeking civil servants to work from office more frequently. The country’s largest public service trade union, Fórsa directs members not to comply, warns of serious dispute. See @IrishTimes

Min for Health Stephen Donnelly formally directed the HSE in recent weeks to pause funding for new developments in Beaumont, the Mater and Tallaght hospitals as a penalty until they introduce new management systems to monitor productivity. See The Irish Times

Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien elected for Fianna Fáil in Fingal East. See @IrishTimes

Minister of State Joe O’Brien of the Green Party has conceded that he has lost his seat in the general election in Fingal West. See @IrishTimes for details

Ann Graves of Sinn Fein in strong position to take seat in new three-seat Fingal East constituency, tally figures suggest.. Chair of FG parliamentary party Alan Farrell could lose out. Duncan Smith of Labour also in battle for seat.

Retailers SuperValu, Centra, Costcutters and off licence Carry Out will no longer sell alcohol products linked to mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor. See @IrishTimes for details.

Voluntary hospitals warn the HSE measures If fully imposed could see some “forced to choose between paying staff, suppliers or the Revenue Commissioners”. See @IrishTimes for details.

Large public voluntary hospitals say new spending limits have been put in place by HSE until the end of the year and this could impact on patient care.

Kerry Hospital described situation following ending of eye services as “a debacle” which caused massive problems and clinical issues for patients. Hospital says comments made in answer to Dail question were sent out in error and unapproved. See @IrishTimes

HSE’s highest earner on one occasion was paid €2,800 in premium payments for seeing four patients in a 60-minute period after being called in at night on a rest day. See @IrishTimes for details

One HSE employee — believed to be a doctor— received almost €1 million last year while another individual received a €1.6 million employment termination payment. See @IrishTimes for details

Under a significant policy change, boosting the number of newly referred patients seen in outpatient clinics as well as the implementation of other reforms in individual hospitals will also become “a significant factor in determining how funding will be allocated/prioritised”

The Government is to withhold State funding for new consultant positions from hospitals that cannot demonstrate that their existing medical specialists are seeing the same number of outpatients as their peers elsewhere. [email protected] for details

The Department of Public Expenditure says in a new paper comparing Irish health expenditure with that in other countries that health spending in Ireland in 2021 was 28 per cent greater than the average in the OECD.

Productivity, efficiency reforms and value for money will increasingly have to be central to discussions over the level of funding to be allocated to the health service, the Department of Public Expenditure has argued in a new paper. See @TheIrishTimes for details