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

I thank the Chairman. I believe the Comptroller and Auditor General’s approach is the correct one. It is in the public interest and is a matter of public concern that warrants a hearing of this committee with both the HSE and the Department of Health officials in place. There have been long-standing concerns with regard to the effectiveness of health spending and whether it delivers the type of services that would be warranted for the amount that is invested by taxpayers.

The matters that arose from the media reports at the weekend were of sufficient public concern to warrant the remarks of the Comptroller and Auditor General at the outset and a firm commitment from this committee that we will be pursuing them. I agree it would be appropriate that we wait until the Comptroller and Auditor General has the full information so that we can be confident about any questions we may want to put to either body before we arrange that meeting. In the shorter term I suggest we write to both bodies seeking their responses to the issues that have been raised at this point in order that they can put their own reflections on all of this to the committee and we can start assessing our responses to that. I do not know if the Chairman has mentioned doing this. I welcome the clarification from the Comptroller and Auditor General. It is very useful for us to have an understanding of how this process works from his perspective.