Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 25 April 2013

Public Accounts Committee

2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 40 - Health Service Executive
Health Service Executive Financial Statements 2011

1:20 pm

Photo of Seán FlemingSeán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

What is the figure in these accounts for the write-offs? It is hard enough to get money in. When it is in the accounts and has to be written off as uncollectible, one must ask whether it should have been in the accounts in the first place or perhaps the issue is a lack of effort made to collect the debt. People will not get away with not paying their property tax. If An Post started writing off all of its debts for unpaid television licences, nobody would pay for a licence. There must be some mechanism in place to ensure that people cannot just walk away from their debts to the HSE, with the executive then writing off those debts after a given period.

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