Mr. Tony O'Brien:

First of all, in my opening statement and the accompanying briefing note that was circulated in advance, I described the precise mechanism we use to get a close handle on the provision of activities or services by RehabCare, NLN and others on foot of the funding we provide. Essentially, we are purchasing services from RehabCare and we are doing so at what we consider to be a fair cost. What differentiates this from our relationship with the ESB, Vodafone or any other company that we might buy services from is that in this case, the services are provided to people who are beneficiaries of health care. That is not the case with the other types of service we buy. Our service arrangement sets out in very fine detail the detailed process, as described today by the HSE delegation and the team from Rehab, that is used to hold service providers to account in terms of the quantum, the nature, the standards and the quality of their services. We do not seek to micro-manage their business in the same way we are often accused of doing with section 38 organisations. We have a different relationship with these organisations. During the course of 2012, in light of the overall level of concern we had about efficiency and value for money and in the context of the value for money report that was published in 2012, we introduced for 2013 a template requiring all salaries paid at or above the public sector pay grade known as grade 8 to be disclosed to us. That was a new thing that was introduced. During the course of 2013, entities such as RehabCare and the NLN have been coming into compliance with that process. As it is a new process, there has been a process of clarification, as I have said. Both entities made certain disclosures to us. We needed a bit more information to understand it fully. During the last few weeks, they have provided in full the information we have required. This continued until last week. Indeed, we got some additional information yesterday. All of this information has formed the basis for some of the information I have provided for the consideration of the clerk.