Mr. Tony O'Brien:

I thank the Deputy for that question. In 2003, Professor Niamh Brennan published her report, known as the Brennan report. It was one of two reports that gave way to the establishment of the HSE. The Brennan commission's report was a report into the financial systems essentially. I suspect the Chairman probably read it carefully at the time. It pointed out a number of things. It outlined the financial systems that would be needed to provide effective information flows and financial control in a nationally organised health service. In parallel with that, the Prospectus report was published. This was the one that recommended the establishment of the HSE. At the time, therefore, the Government had something saying, "Here's what a shiny health service can do for you at a national level and here are the systems it would need to make it work." This was done; this was never done. When the HSE was created it was, in my opinion, systematically starved of the types of systems it would need in order to be an effective single national organisation. On the day I came into my job, I had two things on my desk. One was my warrant as an Accounting Officer. It told me I was personally responsible for everything financial in the HSE. The other was a report that told me that the HSE's financial systems were entirely unfit for purpose. It was a happy day.

The experience the Deputy is having in getting that answer is precisely because there is no single financial system. On that date, I established the financial reform programme, which I called my single highest non-clinical priority, in order to give the health system a financial management system. I am glad to tell the committee that we received approval to proceed with it on Tuesday of this week. What is it called?