Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Mr. Mulvany because his is the first name I have heard that has something to do with finance and, therefore, please God, he will provide some accountability. He mentioned work in progress. What is the spend in that regard? We can tell him what is the spend. I want to know where that spend is going in each CHO area, how much is actually being spent on the services for people who need them and how much has been diverted into the maintenance of buildings and so on. This mental health spend was supposed to be used to supply services to patients.

Has the HSE ever had to use development funding in the past to cover deficits in any of the services, particularly mental health services? If so, there is obviously a knock-on effect. Has this delayed the money being used in the places in which it should have been spent? If so, there must be a huge underlying gap in the services. If the money is not going into the services and as we are dealing with funding, can we receive a breakdown? Where is the money going? There is an officer for financial responsibility in each CHO. Are there financial officers in each CHO who can be held accountable and who we can bring in and of whom we can ask similar questions? We need to get to the bottom of this matter. As one of the Senators said a while ago, almost €1 billion of taxpayers' money is going into a hole and we are not getting straight answers. If I or anybody else here had spent €1 billion and could not say where we had spent it, I am sure we would suffer the consequences. As a result, we need those answers. I appeal to the witnesses. Can we get them and also a breakdown in respect of each area?