David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I asked a question earlier in regard to spending being ahead of profile and Mr. Gloster said it was probably greater than the €500 million we were told about the last time he was before the committee. Will he provide the committee with a briefing on the following point, if possible? To much fanfare, the Minister announced the establishment of a group to look at achieving savings within the HSE, productivity and reining in spending, or perhaps greater accountability around spending is a better way to put it. I know Mr. Gloster raised a number of areas in regard to agency spend, management consultancy and recruitment. Will he set out for the committee what was the target that was set in regard to the overall savings that were to be achieved for 2024 to deal with the spend of money on healthcare, on the one hand, but also what has been achieved to date in regard to those savings and, more specifically, where spending is currently ahead of profile? I can understand that Mr. Gloster does not have that information at his fingertips now, but it would be helpful if it could be provided to the committee.

I am looking for clarity on the following matter. We had some discussion on the pay and numbers strategy, which still has not been published. A number of commitments were given by Mr. Gloster and by Ministers with regard to certain posts. I mentioned one of them, which is a business case to staff the cardiac service in Waterford to a seven-days-a-week service, which is a long-standing commitment. There was a bit of over-and-back between Mr. Gloster and me as to whether that has formally been approved. My question is whether Mr. Gloster has clarity on this, which is important for me. Have the management of the hospital been given the green light to recruit the additional staff needed to move to a seven-days-a-week service or do they have to wait until they get clearance from the regional executive office, REO, once the HSE has allocated the staffing under the pay and numbers strategy?