Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 13 March 2014

Public Accounts Committee

Business of Committee

10:15 am

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

With regard to the correspondence we received on Rehab I am pleased we will invite it back on 12 April. We are dealing with the issue of pensions, but I will not personalise it as it applies across the board in Rehab. A letter received by the committee states that under the Data Protection Acts 1998 to 2003 without the consent of the individuals referred to pension details cannot be disclosed to the committee or any other body. The HSE and State organisations are putting more than €83 million into an organisation, but the HSE states in writing today it is not in a position to disclose a detailed breakdown of the cost of pensions for any individual unless the individual agrees to it under the Data Protection Acts. I am highlighting this as an issue for the Committee of Public Accounts. Even though the committee brings before it people in public session, and the Comptroller and Auditor General has done a full report, an organisation can receive tens of millions of euro from the taxpayer and the HSE can send a letter quoting the Data Protection Act as the reason it cannot give details of pensions without the consent of the individual. We must ask ourselves as the Committee of Public Accounts whether we can continue to allow this situation. A large proportion of taxpayer funds going into any organisation goes on pensions, and we are being told this information will not be disclosed to us, or to the Department providing the money, because of data protection issues. We need to address this. I would like us to have a mechanism in place before 12 April whereby the committee can obtain information on pensions, and I am not personalising this as every organisation we deal with has former employees. This is a new obstacle being put in front of the committee to prevent it from finding out on behalf of the taxpayer the details of where taxpayers' money goes.

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