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

It is not that long ago that €10 million was allocated to mental health and then re-allocated to something else and not spent on that. As the Chairman stated, some of this has to do with workforce planning, training and possibly the type of contracts on offer and so on. Every year when we look at the accounts, one can see the full amount that was allocated in respect of workforce, for example, is not taken up. The announcement is made in the budget but then it takes time to recruit staff. Although you could account for the full amount from January to December, realistically they do not all get employed immediately. I refer to that particular aspect about what is the capacity and what are the issues in respect of spending money. Value for money is not just about the decision to spend a particular amount and it all being properly accounted for; it is about what we get for it. That comes down to the services, the postcode lottery and many other things that come into play. To my mind, that particular aspect keeps coming up every year. The problem with the HSE is you could have it in here every week for the next year and we still would not get through the issues. It is a very big amount of money and sometimes one has to do fairly distinctive pieces. I hope we will be able to do that well in advance of the work the Comptroller and Auditor General is doing.