Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Others may tease out the detail. I find it extraordinary that there are 229 pages of very detailed information in the report, none of which I intend to go through today because we are more concerned about the HSE's control over the issue, rather than the specifics of the report. We have been told the biggest State organisation, with the largest internal audit section, the most staff and resources, spent months in an organisation carrying out this detailed report. There were remarks yesterday in the High Court by Mr. Justice Gilligan to the effect that he was satisfied that Console appeared to be "hopelessly insolvent". The HSE was in there for months carrying out detailed investigations into an organisation that everybody, including the High Court, accepted was hopelessly insolvent when the investigation was ongoing. Mr. Hall indicated it was insolvent for a considerable period. What was the HSE doing running around checking how much was spent on bunches of flowers when the organisation was insolvent? Will Mr. O'Brien respond to that comment? It is bizarre that all this work was ongoing. That is my last point. I am just asking for a quick remark but that is the substance of what was going on. We have the report about Console and it does not deal with anything I would like to see in an audit report about Console and its solvency status. It is not mentioned in the 229 pages.

This is like the financial equivalent of the HSE moving around the deckchairs on the Titanicwhen it was already sinking. It was not dealing with the substance of the issue in Console, which was its insolvency. That should have been the sum of the work. I thank Deputy Madigan for her patience.