Mr. Barry O'Brien:

I refer Deputy Deasy to what his colleague, Deputy Harris, said in very clear terms, namely, that on over 20 occasions this year alone we were involved in direct consultations with the CRC when we became aware of the practices that were in place, specifically in the context of the replacement of the post of CEO. The HSE takes the responsibilities conferred upon it under the Health Acts very seriously. The detail identified by Dr. Geraldine Smith in the audit, the quality of the audit report and the identification of each of the agencies involved clearly indicates that it was far more than a paper-pushing exercise.

I received the report in March and within six days I, as the manager responsible for implementing all of the recommendations, gave a comprehensive reply. If the Deputy considers the period since March, he will see what has happened. A new formal pay policy for the health sector has been approved by the Departments of Public Expenditure and Reform and Health and every manager and every section 38 voluntary agency has been advised of this in order to ensure full compliance. We have come before the group and by way of an update we forwarded a note which says that tomorrow we will be meeting all of the chairs of the section 38 agencies, with each to be accompanied by one other board member.

Yesterday I issued notification to 353 agencies which are deemed to be section 39 bodies. We used the threshold of €250,000 as being the grant aid we give to each of these agencies. There are a couple of thousand below that threshold. Despite the fact that they are not covered by Government pay policy, we have brought it to the attention of each of the agencies to which I refer that in the context of the remuneration of their senior managers, particularly CEOs, they should have regard for Government public sector pay policy. We have been very diligent. There is a very important point to be made here. What the audit has discovered is that - through no fault of the HSE - there is now a due diligence process required for individual employees of section 38 agencies who have contractual entitlements to certain rates of pay where no approval was given by the Department, the former health boards or, since 2005, the HSE. That is a reasonable analysis of where we find ourselves today from the perspective of the HSE.