John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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That is too late. Does Mr. Watt know what I mean? We know as from yesterday when the documents were leaked about the procurement in the HSE because it has been reported to us. It will be a while before a hearing and a report and recommendations are put in place. It is similar for the procurement process for the people who were before us this morning. By the time one learns about it, some of them will have closed. Let me give an example of a chemist who had the contract to supply medication to ten nursing homes where people are being cared for. I have examined the case where a chemist was told one day that he or she had lost the contract, but he or she had not been asked to tender for the contract when the HSE were renewing it. That chemist has spent 14 months arguing with the HSE about the fact that the procurement process excluded him or her. Meanwhile some other chemist is supplying the nursing homes. While he is arguing that the paperwork was not correct and that he was not asked to tender, he does not have the contract. The system has a way of trundling on and the dogs will bark and the caravan moves on. I think somebody should stop the caravan. Somebody has to stop the HSE in its tracks.

In respect of the North-South case, a whistleblower had known about it since 2006. How many more mistakes were made from 2006 to the present day in respect of procurement simply because nobody cried stop? If this happened in a private business, there would be a board meeting and somebody would get the sack. The system would be changed. I do not think we should have to wait until recommendations are made. I am saying that with due respect to Mr. Watt and his officials. I think there should be a procedure at the end of each meeting of the Committee of Public Accounts that somebody should make a phone call to the relevant person, asking what is happening in their section. It is farcical to listen to these stories every single week. We propose to bring in the HSE next week, if we can. We will hear what has been going on. I think it is a terrible reflection on the system how correspondence from the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General to the audit section of the HSE is dealt with. The HSE, rather than reply efficiently and well, waits until the last minute and then does what so often happens here, it leaks it to the newspapers. That is not acceptable.