Dan Neville (Limerick West, Fine Gael)

The explanatory memoranda are of great assistance in understanding and reading the legislation.

Section 3 allows the Health Service Executive to enter into an agreement with a person to supply services for the purpose of the Act. During the period when the publication of the legislation was awaited we were informed the delay was due to outside companies quoting prices of up to €50 million to administer the scheme. We questioned on a number of occasions the reason the HSE could not undertake this work. Deputy Quinn referred to other efficient and experienced Departments such as the Revenue Commissioners and the Department of Social and Family Affairs who would be capable of doing this work. The Department of Health and Children has successfully dealt with the surviving 10,000 people in a very short period by making ex gratia payments through the use of departmental records. It is surprising that an outside company is required to deal with the estates of the 40,000 to 50,000 deceased people. Any delay incurred if the HSE undertook this work would not make much difference to their estates and will certainly not make any difference to the patients themselves. I am surprised the HSE, considering its staffing, is not in a position to undertake this job when it was perfectly capable of dealing with matters up to this point. One of the reasons for the establishment of the HSE was to rationalise the system and create efficiencies within the overall system for the delivery of health care. I am confident the HSE has sufficient staff numbers to address this issue. I ask the Minister of State to explain the reason he has not considered the expertise within the HSE rather than going to an outside organisation. Is the Minister of State passing a vote of no confidence in the HSE by outsourcing something which is a matter of public administration?

The mistakes were made by the Government and should be dealt with by the HSE if it is to demonstrate the improvement it has supposedly brought to the health services. The HSE began collecting information on who was entitled to repayment. Employing consultants to administer the scheme seems strange when the HSE has already dealt with ex gratia payments worth €20 million to more than 10,000 people. The Minister of State informs the House that a consultancy firm will be engaged in April. Will the Minister of State confirm that the consultants have been engaged and whether contracts have been signed or will this be announced at a later stage?

I hope the forms which must be completed by patients or their families will be as simple as possible. Patients or their families should not be required to make claims in duplicate. If the HSE has most of the information there should be no need for patients to complete forms. Whatever way it is administered I hope the forms will not be used as a delaying tactic to avoid making the repayments.

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