Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 9 March 2017

Public Accounts Committee

HSE's Patients' Private Property Accounts 2015
HSE Financial Statement 2015: Note 13 re Fair Deal Scheme
Health Repayments Scheme Donations Fund 2015

9:00 am

Mr. Stephen Mulvany:

We have a plan. Let us consider the case of money earned in the four-year period between 2005 and 2008. In the middle of that period we created a central unit and we started to give everyone the proper interest into their accounts.

This is a residual issue. We have now started a project with three main phases. It is externally supported. The first phase is under way. The purpose of it is to gather sufficient data to be able to identify the clients from 2005 to 2008. Then we have to calculate an interest rate. Then we have to pay it. The first two parts of the exercise will take the remainder of the year to carry out. Then, next year, the intention is to be able to start paying the money where we can identify the clients or the entitled next-of-kin.

I will set out some information to get an understanding of the context in terms of the money involved. We are talking about interest as opposed to money given to us for safeguarding.