Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 24 October 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health

Consideration and Implications of 2024 Health Services Funding: Discussion

Photo of Róisín ShortallRóisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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That is fine.

Returning to Mr. Watt, the problem started this year, if not before that. He knew from the end of last year that there was not going to be sufficient money to meet the service plan. We know what happened early in the year, which is there was a three-month delay in agreeing the service plan. We know a senior person on the board of the HSE identified what he referred to as a €2 billion black hole. We know there were a lot of angry exchanges between Mr. Watt and the acting CEO of the HSE, who was pointing out very clearly that the money just was not there to fund the service plan. In hindsight, does Mr. Watt accept it would have been better if he had been upfront about that in the early part of the year and not tried to hide that deficit?