Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Second, the health committee had a long discussion with Dr. Scally yesterday. It lasted approximately three and a half hours. We had a detailed discussion on information coming out on this area and we should be concerned about it. It is important to have the correct lines of demarcation between the committees in order that we do not fall into issues in the way we did in the past. If there is a clear demarcation line, this committee will be responsible for looking at the contracts, the tendering process and the money spent on those matters. I ask the clerk to the committee to liaise with the clerk to the health committee. After I asked questions yesterday, Dr. Scally revealed that he had received no documents for the tendering process. He has found that the HSE shredded them as soon as the time limits were up, which is the only example of efficiency on the part of the HSE that he has found. Now the HSE has to go to the laboratories to obtain copies of its own tender documents. The second extraordinary thing is that, even now, Dr. Scally cannot guarantee that the HSE has provided him with every version of every contract with every laboratory. The third extraordinary thing is that Dr. Scally does not know whether there were other examples of laboratory work being outsourced in the past ten years. He does not know where it begins and ends but thinks he has some of it. However, he cannot guarantee that there were no more examples. The demarcation line that applies to this committee relates to our responsibility to examine the spending of taxpayers' money. It is important for this committee to liaise with the health committee to hone in on these areas in advance of our meeting on 8 November.