Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 19 September 2024

Public Accounts Committee

Business of Committee

9:30 am

Photo of Paul McAuliffePaul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Of all the accounts before us, the HSE's is the one that jumps out. It is not necessarily because of any one of the details but more the scale of the points as well as the figure of €27 billion that falls within its remit. The total State spending this year might be €110 billion. The HSE makes up almost a quarter of that, yet it does not make up a quarter of our activities here. As we go on, we should start to think about that a little more. We have more than one hearing a year with the HSE but it can be ad hoc cases or discussion that happens around disability services or whatever. There is a growing feeling among elected representatives of all parties that we need to have greater scrutiny over the HSE in general. Perhaps the Committee of Public Accounts needs to consider how we respond to that too. With €27 billion, it deserves more than one hearing rather than an organisation that may have spending of even €1 billion or far less. Is it the case that we should do a HSE module of three or four hearings and then strategically go away and break those hearings down into four different areas, for example, rather than our raising issues in an ad hoc way each year? I see it as one lump there. I think we should consider that in our work programme, perhaps in private discussion first and then bring forward a proposal.

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