James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is not often that Deputy Ó Caoláin and I agree. This is one of the occasions we agree although perhaps not in the same way. I am happy to share with Deputy Ó Caoláin my thoughts on the Report Stage amendment because I am clear in what I am trying to achieve. Its purpose is to accommodate precisely what Deputy Ó Caoláin was talking about and it alludes to what I was talking about some moments ago.

Currently we have the director general, the hospitals director, the primary care director, the social care director, the mental health director and the director of health and well-being. That is six people. We also have a chief operations officer in place, bringing the total to seven. We are advertising for a chief financial officer, who has not yet been appointed. This comes back to the point that they must be employees to go on the directorate, and most people here would agree that any organisation would want its chief financial officer involved at the directorate or managerial level, which is precisely why I am talking about a Report Stage amendment to accommodate that.

In essence, I am in agreement but the language is a little different. People must be employed first before going on the directorate. It is a technicality but I have highlighted the area in the past as there is a great deficiency in that regard throughout the system concerning a lack of people with financial training being involved in the control of the finances of an organisation. If memory serves, approximately 10% of people in charge of accountancy functions within the HSE have financial training, which is a cause of grave concern. We have set about addressing that and we have appointed somebody new in the Department, through the four regions and in the primary care reimbursement service. We need a new chief financial officer in the new directorate.