Ciara Conway (Waterford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister and his officials for attending today.

On the projected €15 million in legal costs for child care services, is there a link with the paper published by the Department, Future Health, and the integrated financial management system? Is this another case of money going into a black hole? What is happening in terms of where budgets are being allocated? Community beds were closed in a community hospital because of legal bills in child care services. That is how these child care costs are reflected in people's lives. It is a reflection of how this pans out for us as public representatives and for constituents.

Long before the Minister’s tenure, there was a difficulty in the Department of Health and the HSE with moneys going awry, being sucked into acute centres and away from community-based services. How well has the integrated financial system come along? How are we ensuring that moneys allocated to mental health or child care services are spent on them? Has the Minister had any discussions with the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs or the Minister for Justice and Equality on legal costs? I understand the legal services Bill has still not been published. Fifteen million euro is quite a substantial amount of money.

Last year, due to the failure of consultants to complete forms for health insurance companies, there was more than €14 million outstanding for the HSE. How much of this money has been collected? We were told that those who failed to complete the forms would have their names published on a departmental website. Has that been done?