John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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If so, the HSE did nothing about it.

That is what I find frustrating about this matter. The HSE knew that it was allocating substantial funds, but it did not follow the money. Now that this has been discovered on foot of hearings held by the committee, it is trying to apply salary scales retrospectively. At the same time and within its own organisation, it is willing to red circle these salary scales. On the previous occasion on which its representatives came before the committee, we discovered that one postholder in Limerick was being paid privately at a rate of €258,000 when the actual salary scale was somewhere in the region of €112,000. The HSE is doing things that it expects others not to do. That is what I find frustrating. The letter from Mr. Peelo to the HSE in 2009 states quite clearly, "Notwithstanding that CRC has access to funding separate to the funding provided by the HSE...". This means that the HSE knew there was a fund in existence, but it never inquired as to the amount of money contained in it.