Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 23 April 2015

Public Accounts Committee

2013 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Chapter 14 - Procurement by the Health Service Executive
Health Service Executive Financial Statements 2013

10:00 am

Mr. Pat Healy:

There was engagement between the chairman, Mr. Conal Devine, and the Garda on the issue of whether the report could be completed.

The reason there is confusion is that during the undertaking of the investigation, the Garda Síochána asked that there be a pause on it because of the work it was undertaking. There was ongoing engagement between the chair of the investigation team and the Garda Síochána and, subsequently, he was able to continue his review. He sought and received clearance to complete the review and publish the report. Subsequently, in light of additional information that became available to the Garda Síochána, an investigation was opened and continues today. In that context, there has been movement over time about whether there was clearance to publish the report. In relation to the current position, we have-----