Dr. Geraldine Smith:

That is an interesting question. The reply was in the public domain. Further issues arose subsequently, which I will outline in sequence to provide a better context. In 1998, as part of enhancing partnership discussions on disability services, one of the quotes from an agency was that the Department of Health was aware that chief officers were being paid over and above the rates through other sources of funds. In July 2008, the Department requested the HSE to write to the disability agencies to seek all expenditure, whether funded by the HSE or otherwise. In August 2008, the HSE wrote to the agencies. In October 2008 the Department wrote to the head of human resources in the HSE to advise that there may be cases in voluntary agencies - hospitals - where unauthorised salaries were in payment. It arrived at that view because it was dealing with a particular case. In January 2009 the HSE submitted a report on pay and non-pay expenditure in non-statutory disability service providers to the Department, which noted that certain agencies reported that some of the salaries they paid were supplemented with fund raising and retail income. In 2009, the Department wrote to a particular agency to raise a list of hybrid pay scales and to note that they were not authorised.