Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 16 September 2021

Public Accounts Committee

Financial Statement 2020 and Related Matters: HSE

9:30 am

Mr. Paul Reid:

In terms of the specification of these contracts as they go out for competitive tender, they are very clear in terms of the nature of the drawdown costs or the services contracted for and associated factors, be it individual hours, cost or services drawn down. It is something we place considerable focus on in the HSE in terms of what is it is utilised for so that we do not have scope creep. Some of the consultancy houses referenced by the Deputy would bring a level of expertise, particularly in terms of laboratories and testing, that we did not have at the very start. Grant Thornton and others would provide a lot of operational capacity that we may not have in-house but I will ask Mr. Mulvany to talk about the detailed reporting level - our assessment of contracts as they are awarded.