David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have a strong opinion on the section 38 and 39 issue. We had a full hearing on Console. The HSE director appeared came before the committee and we found out that he is not the Accounting Officer but that the Secretary General of the Department of Health was.

The internal HSE audit was devastating and pointed out systemic failures yet there has not been a single change in policy, that I am aware of, since then. Since then Console problems have arisen in respect of at least three section 38 organisations. The last time the Secretary General of the Department and the HSE appeared before us they passed the buck back to these organisations. It is clear that there are issues in respect of financial and governance controls which need to be considered. When I raised this with the Comptroller and Auditor General he said he does comment on section 38. Would it be wise for this committee to ask the Comptroller and Auditor General to do a special report on the financial and governance controls within these organisations and examine where there have been internal report or audit failures? It seems to be one organisation after another. The last time the HSE came before us I feel we were stonewalled. The officials passed the buck. There was no acceptance of any failures yet its internal audit pointed out potential systemic failures. It is such an important issue, involving hundreds of millions of euro of taxpayers' money but we only glanced at it once and then because of all the other work we parked it. I do not want to impose more work on the Comptroller and Auditor General but I feel it is an important issue.