Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 27 November 2013

Public Accounts Committee

2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive

4:35 pm

Mr. Tony O'Brien:

I am not sure that we have a veto. We have the right to insist that they comply, to carry out the audit and to escalate to further measures now that we know what we know. It is clear in general that the persons who made these decisions must have known they required approval to enter into these additional pay arrangements but, for whatever reason, they either convinced themselves they were exempt from the requirement for such approval or that some conversation they had with somebody somewhere can be construed as amounting to approval.