Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

People think HIQA oversees all hospitals and the witness can understand that confusion arises because HIQA issues reports on hospitals. People do not know the difference between a statutory investigation, a monitoring role and regulatory inspection.

I want to move on to the witnesses' colleagues from the Department of Health. I do not expect Dr. Kathleen MacLellan to be able to immediately answer my next question and perhaps the departmental officials will forward the answer to the committee. The health sector in Ireland includes the HSE, which has total annual expenditure of approximately €13.5 billion, and private health care centres and private hospitals, which probably account for another couple of billion euro in annual expenditure. Do the witnesses know the financial turnover in the areas they regulate? Out of the €15 billion or €16 billion total expenditure in the health sector, is it possible that only 20% of the sector in terms of scale of activity is regulated? Millions of people go through the hospital system. Can any of the witnesses give me a general picture of the value of the disability and nursing home sectors and what level of expenditure those sectors are responsible for relative to the total health spend and not just the HSE Vote? This is the Committee of Public Accounts and such questions have to be asked here. People know approximate figures. It is possibly not something the witnesses have specifically thought about but can they give me an indication of what percentage of health services in Ireland is regulated by HIQA? Most people think it has a particular role but I am beginning to appreciate that only a fraction of the total health spend is regulated by HIQA. Am I correct in that?