Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 3 December 2019
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach
Matters relating to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Discussion
John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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This has gone on for ten or 15 years. Mr. Watt is the paymaster. I would say to the HSE that it should get it together or not get its money. Someone has to take charge. Mr. Watt spoke about leadership. There is no leadership. The public system is almost in a collapsed state right now. In the private system, services operate like clockwork. The most basic thing that makes that happen is the flow of information. Despite this, we still do not have a HSE system in place.
I must return to the point I made about the settlements. I am not commenting on any case but the amount of money is phenomenal. We are meeting again this week to deal with the exceptional circumstances of a particular case. We are to meet the Minister for Finance. What is happening cannot continue.