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

I wish to address the 2019 procurement review. I am really frustrated by the manner in which this line of correspondence with the HSE is going. It has been asked by the Committee of Public Accounts on several occasions to clarify the status of this procurement review, which was apparently paused in 2019, and address whether it was actually cancelled. This correspondence indicates that the 2019 review was paused and that it then resumed but focused entirely on 2020. To me, this spells that the 2019 review has been cancelled. This is important because this is the first year in which this type of procurement review has been conducted. As members know, 2020 was a unique year for all Departments, but particularly for the HSE. We need the 2019 procurement review to be completed in order to have an adequate baseline and base year with which to compare future years. I am not satisfied that just having the HSE appear before the committee will resolve anything because I think its representatives will run down the clock on this issue. We need to ask them in writing exactly what the status of the 2019 procurement review is and what the intentions are to resume that review this year. We are talking about hundreds of millions of euro of taxpayers' money and there needs to be a full appraisal of whether the procurement process is working in order to ensure we are getting best value. That is my proposal.