James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)

I thank everyone who has spoken during the debate on this issue. I agree with what Deputy Boyd Barrett said about the Fianna Fáil contribution to the debate, which was a bit rich. The stuff we heard today is about the only rich thing Fianna Fáil has left us. I remind Deputy Kelleher that this was not a "review" and was never referred to as such. It was always referred to as an "examination". The proper and full review referred to in the programme for Government will take place in 2012, which is next year. The examination will continue until we have absolute clarity. I repeat that I am not happy that we have absolute clarity. I alluded to that in my opening statement. We have to deal with this exemplar of what is wrong in the HSE. The financial systems make it difficult to find out where decisions are made, where money is spent and how it is spent. We cannot have a scenario where a subhead, or a pot of money dedicated to one issue, can be used for other issues. The whole thing becomes completely confusing if pots are used in that way. Confusion is not the friend of clarity and it is certainly not the friend of good accounting. This matter will continue to be examined until I have absolute clarity.

I have to point out that this mess occurred because the previous Government underfunded the scheme. To suggest that the new executive board of the HSE could be culpable, when all of this predates its first meeting, is utterly ridiculous.

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