Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Next week we will want to see the number of claims that came in during 2018 as against 2017 and 2016. I hope that will prove the point you are making, Mr. Mulvany. The Committee of Public Accounts cannot make a judgment without seeing the information. I think you are getting a feel for where we are coming at for next week. It could be useful work on the part of the Committee of Public Accounts. We have been at it slowly for some time. That is the position with the State Claims Agency.

How much does the agency ask for? How much does the HSE provide for in the year? A letter was released recently under a freedom of information request to the HSE. The letter was to Ms O'Connor from Greg Dempsey of the Department of Health on the 2019 HSE national service plan. It was dated 20 December 2018. This is presumably on the website - I got a copy of it there. The letter refers to amendments to the service plan that the Department has requested the HSE to make. The first point was that the Department requested that the funding for the State Claims Agency be reduced by €20 million while the nursing home support scheme and the fair deal scheme would be increased by the same amount. Can someone from the Department of Health explain why the Department asked that question, given that we know the cost of claims are going up every year? I came here years ago and we were at €1.5 billion. The figure has been going up by several hundred million euro every year. The figure is now almost €3 billion. Why would the Department issue a letter on that basis? The heading refers to amendments required in advance of formal approval of the national service plan 2019. I have given the date. The letter was released under the freedom of information process. It is a public document. The letter requested that the funding for the State Claims Agency be reduced by €20 million when in fact the Department knows that payments are going in the opposite direction. The idea was to put an extra €20 million into the fair deal scheme. Can the Department officials explain the thinking behind that?