Liam Twomey (Wexford, Fine Gael)

The Tánaiste made another mistake this morning when she stated that €200 million was overspent in the establishment of the HSE and no one in this House cared less about it. I raised that issue during the debate on the Estimates for the public service in 2006 and asked whether it cost approximately €200 million to establish the HSE in 2005 and, if it were true, whether the Department could clarify the figure. Interestingly, an official present contacted me within a number of days to say there was an issue of overspending in the health authorities among other matters, which he did not go into at the time. As we were approaching the end of the year, I decided to raise it in the next round of parliamentary questions. I submitted a parliamentary question to the Tánaiste before 11 a.m. yesterday and I hope she will give me a nice, clear answer now that she has raised the issue. Five hours before the Minister for Finance, Deputy Cowen, appeared in the House, I asked about where the €200 million went. I hope the Minister will give a clear answer as it is important that we know what is happening with money spent on the health care service.

Why did this happen? The Tánaiste is not right when she says it is a big pot into which authorities can dip when they need millions of euro to spend. I was under the impression that finance officers were told to rigidly stay within budget, whether they were in health boards or the HSE. The practice about which the Tánaiste spoke, of holding back major capital projects and spending until the end of the year, came about as a result of the idea that authorities were told not to overrun on their budgets. Will the Tánaiste explain what is happening in this respect?

The health care service has a significant number of problems but the Tánaiste put her name on the line in terms of the efficiency and financial accountability the HSE is supposed to bring to it. Nothing we have seen throughout 2005 or the beginning of 2006 gives us any confidence that the HSE is getting its act together. Why did the finance officer appointed at the beginning of 2005 stay for only four or five months? Did he have any comments to make on this matter? Are there other issues concerning financial accountability and the HSE that we should hear about before we must trawl through freedom of information requests to find out the information ourselves? Will the Tánaiste make a clear statement on whether there are difficulties regarding financial accountability within the HSE and health care services?

Within certain sections of the HSE there is a lack of confidence that the organisation is working as intended. If that is the case, the Tánaiste may have greater issues to face than the €56 million, the €150 million spent on PPARS or as yet to be exposed money wasted on other matters throughout the health service.

While this was happening, services were denied to patients. Operations were cancelled, there was no home help or speech therapy services and a whole range of elements were denied to patients across the health service. The House needs clear answers. I will wait to hear the contributions of others and then ask the Tánaiste something else during the questions and answers session.

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