David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I concur. The issue of not honouring contracts is important because it has financial consequences. If we are exploring it, though, we could also explore a related matter, namely, that of tax avoidance. We dealt with this. In a report, the Comptroller and Auditor General brought our attention to a practice whereby consultants established companies and paid corporation tax rather than PAYE, and that they were availing of improper allowances. I am not saying that every consultant does this, but it was a practice within the health service. We put questions to Revenue, but we never got the chance to put questions to consultants, a group representing them or the HSE. If we are examining the issue of consultants, there is a considerable amount involved that is relevant to this committee.

Deputy McDonald is right about the governance issues and the financial fallout of consultants being paid to do a job and not doing it, which falls under our remit. If a practice is being employed by some consultants to avoid paying income tax and there is a loss of revenue to the Exchequer, that also falls under the remit of the committee. In light of both issues, this is a serious enough matter to put on our work programme. Perhaps we can discuss it later.