Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

It is quite difficult to get the context of this response. A few matters jumped out to me. One was the payment of €121,000 to the Combined Media company relating to the development, launching and management of the Children's Health Ireland jobs website. A further €83,000 was paid to Q4 Public Relations.

None of us expects the changes for children's health to come without a cost. We are trying to keep a close eye on what we are spending and what we are getting for it. We heard recently from the oversight body for the procurement of the children's hospital that there is substantial slippage in the timeline. There may well be costs associated with things having to be upgraded while we are waiting for that to be completed. Some of these are network supports and specialised services that are being brought in.

Why does it need to spend €121,000 on the Children's Health Ireland jobs website which seems like a large amount of money with further money spent on public relations and communications? Those kinds of things jump out at me. It is understood that good IT systems are required, but the expectation is that those IT systems in the main will focus on clinical or operational issues. I am not fully au faitwith why it needs to spend money on those two items. We need to expand on that further.