Reaction:The 9 per cent increase in health funding announced in the Estimates would barely keep pace with medical inflation, the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) claimed last night.
Dr Christine O'Malley, vice-president of the IMO, said it appeared Government policy was to leave the health services "languishing in crisis".
She added that the "small amount of additional funding" would do nothing to address the obvious deficiencies in the health service.
Donal Duffy of the Irish Hospital Consultants Association said there was no specific mention of plans to provide significant additional in-patient hospital beds next year. There were now fewer in-patient hospital beds than in 2001, when the National Health Strategy promised to provide an extra 3,000 over 10 years, he said.
"Until that is dealt with the A&E crisis will worsen because we have an increasing population and an ageing population."
He welcomed the investment in GP services, however. "We see that as helping to alleviate some of the pressures on the acute sector," he said.
The Irish Nurses Organisation welcomed the new undergraduate direct-entry degree programmes in midwifery and general/paediatric nursing. However, it said the Government had failed to allocate sufficient money to address "the glaring inadequacies which continue to blight the Irish health service".
Fine Gael health spokesman Dr Liam Twomey said the doubling of A&E and in-patient bed charges since 2002 was bad news for patients.
Liz McManus, Labour's health spokeswoman, said those enduring terrible conditions in overcrowded A&E units would find it difficult to believe that €56 million that was available in 2005 had gone unspent.
"I also believe that the 23 per cent increase in the allocation for the National Treatment Purchase Fund is misdirected," she added.