The Irish government will invest an extra €23 million in new digital health projects in 2025 on top of recurrent funding, including projects such as the roll-out of the patient app and the development of shared care records.

This week’s budget also saw €1m put aside to roll out community virtual wards in four sites, along with a big boost to the government’s waiting list action plan.

According to the budget papers, the €23m in extra digital health funding is part of will enable the Department of Health to continue to invest in the development of electronic healthcare records and allow for digital measures to boost capacity and enable productivity.

It will also support existing initiatives such as ePrescribing and eRostering.

The money for community virtual wards is part of an extra €56m allocation towards bed capacity, which includes increasing acute bed capacity across the country by 335 beds as well as 455 in replacement and 160 new beds in community capacity.

There is also a €420m package to combat waiting lists, including €190m for the HSE’s waiting list action plan, and an increase of €60m on 2024 to deliver capacity and enable the reform of scheduled care.

According to the HSE, 2.2 per cent of the total health spend was allocated to IT, equating to less than €500m, in 2023. It aims to boost this spend by between four and six per cent of the overall healthcare expenditure over the next seven years.

The overall health budget is €25.8 billion, an increase of €2.94 billion on the January 2024 allocation.

The 2025 health budget includes €1.2 billion allocated for existing level of service, €1.5 billion additional funding for 2024 pressures and €335 million in additional new measures.

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said: “Investment in our health service is now at its highest level in the history of the State. Budget 2025 sees an increase of almost €3 billion on 2024, supporting the continued expansion and delivery of quality services as we continue to ensure everyone is able to get the health care they need, when they need it.

“We are living longer and living better, but our growing and ageing population place additional demands on our services. We continue to respond to these challenges, and we are placing a strong focus on more productivity alongside investment in increased capacity and in workforce planning to ensure we can meet the needs of our healthcare service into the future.”

Minister for Mental Health and Older People Mary Butler said the older people’s budget is now almost €3 billion, including €120 million for home support services to help older people live in their own homes for as long as possible.