Tom Neville (Limerick County, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I totally agree with the Chairman's comment. As the people who sign off on the budget, we are accountable to the public for that. From the specialist perspective, we would like to know what is being spent. I understand from an audit perspective the boxes are ticked on the back end and we have had this discussion, thrashing it out already. From the front end - I am making a decision as a stakeholder on how to spend the money - I cannot get the answer as to where it is being spent. It is extremely difficult for me to go to a voter then and say that X, Y and Z are being done. I cannot answer the questions coming back to me.

Do we want to see more resources put into mental health? I am not saying it does not need more resourcing but if new money is being given to it, we need to know where the money is being spent before we put more money into it again. It would be irresponsible to put money on top of other money when we do not know where it is going.

There was mention of a new finance system and I received an answer to a parliamentary question about a new finance system as well. I was told there would be a new finance system but I have been given nothing about timelines or the current state of the project. I have been given nothing about the cost of the project, whether capital, implementation or ongoing running costs. What budget will it come from? Will it be from the new money or existing budget? Is it being outsourced and what is the relationship in that process? The witnesses have said it will take a number of years to implement this but is it being built onsite or offsite? There are a number of questions to which we need answers. If the finance system is a shared system and takes a number of years to roll out, where exactly are we in the project? Is the HSE gathering requirements now or is it moving to the testing phase?