Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome and thank Deputy Gould for raising this issue. It appears to be a perplexing situation. The HSE has outsourced the running of the doctor on call services to a private company. The HSE is under the impression that this company has an obligation to provide particular services in some parts of Cork. We are told that on 14 March last year SouthDoc closed 11 facilities across counties Cork and Kerry. On 18 and 29 September and on 1 October the HSE wrote to SouthDoc requesting the restoration of a service plan for Listowel and Blackpool. SouthDoc sent a letter stating it is not planning to open either Listowel or Blackpool.

This is a potentially very serious matter and it is crucial we get a full appraisal from the HSE as to how it finds itself in this position where services to local communities are being essentially denied by a private company which has received €7.294 million in 2019 and 2020. How can an organisation be in receipt of that level of taxpayers' money and yet refuse point blank to provide a service? We know the HSE can often be dysfunctional but when it outsources to private companies it often appears to be even more dysfunctional. This committee needs to do a bit of work in respect of how we got to this point.