Mr. Tom Heffernan:

I share the Chairman's concern. It has been a priority of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform since 2006 to encourage the HSE to bring forward proposals to put in place a single national financial management system. We have had engagements during the years to encourage this. A proposal emerged and when various technical issues were raised from time to time, the proposals tended to revert back to the HSE and the Department of Health for clarification and elaboration. The most recent proposal, on which there has been engagement with CMOD, is a different technical solution and approach to the proposal that was on the table up to 2010. Apart from exhorting and expressing the same concerns the committee would express about the management of information, we cannot force the HSE and Department of Health to produce a product. When they produce products, we engage with them and evaluate the products presented.