The government and opposition are engaged in a battle of numbers after Labour claimed the €13 million rise in the health budget was fictitious but the Finance Ministry stuck to its figure.

Labour MP Michael Farrugia said while on paper recurrent expenditure increased by €13 million, in reality it fell by about €10 million when the allocation for the elderly was taken into account.

“What happened is that votes that used to fall under the elderly have been transferred to health, so in reality if you take health and the elderly together, the vote only increased by about €3 million,” Dr Farrugia said.

“In reality, the €13 million bombshell is non-existent... It’s a lie,” he said.

However, the ministry stood its ground, saying it all boiled down to an issue of EU funding. Last year, it explained, health used to fall under the ministry for social policy. A number of this ministry’s projects were financed by the EU, to a total of €10 million, but they were not health related.

“The amount under health last year included the EU funding budget, which increased the amount by €10 million but, in reality, it was €10 million less,” a ministry spokesman said.