Mr. Michael Harty:

I will begin by responding to Deputy Higgins. I realise that there is a certain difference in our positions and outlooks. We are not necessarily calling for privatisation. We are calling for transparency and accountability, regardless of who provides the care at the end of the day. We are asking the Government to ensure the organisations it funds are providing the best quality of care. We would have absolutely no problem if decisions were made purely on the basis of quality. The weighting for price was just 15%, which is very low, in the case of a recent HSE tender. We suggest the weighting for price should be 0%. In this case, the selection of approved providers was driven by quality. All of the home helps applied for it, but just one of them was successful. It was based on the internal standards of the HSE. This indicates that the quality of care being offered by some providers in receipt of section 39 funding is not what it should be. Private companies were not successful because their prices were lower. As I said, price received a weighting of just 15%. We are interested in transparency and accountability in how the funds are spent, rather than privatisation. If not-for-profit organisations end up providing the care, so be it. The decision should be based on quality.

I will return to the point I made in response to Deputy McDonald. There is a misconception that not-for-profit is good and private is bad. The only difference between not-for-profit and private is that I have transparency - people can see what my profit is - whereas the surplus in the not-for-profit sector is spent on salaries or administration costs. It is not money that is saved. It just goes under a different cost heading. It is important to ensure the organisation can provide the best quality care. We have to get away from this bashing of private provision. We are not saying it should be privatised. We are saying there is a need for transparency and accountability. The best quality providers must be allowed to rise to the top.