Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I was a member of the Oireachtas Committee on Health when the Committee of Public Accounts was looking at section 38 and section 39 organisations. We have a problem in the sense that over 2,500 organisations are getting funding from the HSE. I remember raising an issue relating to an organisation that I wanted to invite before the Oireachtas Committee on Health but we were advised that we could not get it in because the Committee of Public Accounts was dealing with section 38 and section 39 organisations, which I thought was wrong. In fairness to the Committee of Public Accounts, it could only deal with one or two organisations at the time with regard to cross-examination, whereas the Committee on Health could easily have dealt with other issues. We need to be careful that we do not prevent other committees from looking at other issues. Regardless of whether organisations come under the remit of the Departments of Justice, Agriculture, Food and the Marine or Health, we should not prevent other committees from pursuing other aspects.

The Committee of Public Accounts still has fairly extensive powers relating to accountability. The one difficulty we have is that where there is any litigation involving an issue coming before us, it is impossible to deal with any of that. In another forum, I have come across cases that have been pending for four or five years and are deliberately in the courts to prevent that public examination, which is one of the other difficulties we can face.