Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I accept what the witness is saying but I am trying to get to the issue. The HSE must look after an incredible number of funds and public money and this committee must ensure that is done appropriately. I will have questions for the Department of Health in a moment. The HSE is an organisation. It is not just about the financial tracking and auditing, which is clearly critical, but there must be intelligence in the organisation from various means - it is a small country - that should from time to time check out these organisations to ensure that public money is being spent appropriately and the people leading the organisations are appropriate to serve public money. I understand they are appointed by a board but they produce the services.

As an organisation spending this amount of money, is the HSE being rigid? Arising from this rigidity, do those processes, protocols and checks work sometimes but not at other times?