Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I too wish to be associated with the remarks of the Chairman and colleagues who have expressed their disappointment that St. Vincent's has declined to come before us. It has a responsibility to do so, as taxpayers' money is involved. It is totally wrong for St. Vincent's to hide behind an internal investigation. A separate Garda investigation is being conducted. In respect of the internal investigation, we have no idea of the terms of reference or the timeline, as others have mentioned, and there is a possible conflict of interest in respect of the person who has been appointed. I would have thought that if we received a letter from St. Vincent's Healthcare Group it would have come from somebody who is more relevant to the issues we are concerned about today, namely procurement, and not from the director of strategy, who is not responsible for procurement. Probably, it should have been the chairman of the St. Vincent's University Hospital, Mr. James Menton, or the chief executive officer who communicated with committee. The concern is that Mr. Menton is a partner at KPMG and the person heading up the investigation is a member of staff in KPMG. We would like to ask why that particular choice was made. There are serious questions that are relevant to the entire procurement process and the manner in which the investigation is going to take place that we would have liked St. Vincent's to answer and that it still should answer. The message that should go out in writing from this committee is that St. Vincent's University Hospital should reconsider its decision, that there is an onus on it to do so, and that, while we may not be able to compel it, that does not exempt it from its responsibility to be here before us and to account for taxpayers' money.