Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I want to pick up on the points made by Mr. Watt in regard to terminal overspends in the acutes and the need to - these are my words - rein in that expenditure. We know that a large proportion of the acutes are voluntary hospitals and, certainly, all of the big hospitals in the Dublin region are voluntary hospitals. What controls are there, either on the part of the HSE or the Department, in regard to very basic things in the operation of those voluntaries, such as the absence of 24-seven working, consultant performance and the oversight of that, which we were talking about earlier, performance information generally in regard to those hospitals, budget allocations, accident and emergency units and staffing levels? Where are the controls on that very substantial expenditure?