Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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The Deputy is correct. This is a substantial sum of money, €24.7 billion. Sometimes €22 billion is quoted but this is almost €25 billion in a year. I have no problem with that money going to the HSE but as I have told the HSE here on a few occasions, we could load up another €10 billion on an articulated lorry and drove it over to its headquarters of the Department of Health and land it there. By the time by the time it got to the services and trying to figure out what happened in between is difficult. I have spoken to the Comptroller and Auditor General about this many times over the past four years. It is one of my bug bears and I know it is for members. About two years ago, we suggested that we would bring in the HSE and deal with a number of issues in a way that did not do justice to it. We did not get the level of in depth discussion or analysis of what is going on. In the past year and a half or two years we have tried to focus and with some success but the Deputy is correct that it needs to be done with a bit more focus and in a sharper way whereby we focus on a particular area of budget in the HSE and the actual service delivery and what is happening in that space. That is where much of this ,money is going. Much of it may be used very well, and I am sure it is. There are some very good people in there doing good work but it is a fair assessment that given the hearings with the HSE, and sometimes we have had up to three a year, there needs to be greater scrutiny. The bicycle shed is a scandal but in the context of almost a quarter of all public spending in the State, the HSE deserves an awful lot more attention. Whatever length of time we are here for, we should try to put a better focus on it.

Is the Deputy okay with everything else?