Seán Power (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)

The Deputies have raised a number of issues with which I will try to deal. I cannot accept the amendment as it would not allow for the appointment of an outside company to administer the scheme.

The Government decision allowed for the appointment of an outside company to provide an independent input into the process. The current public tendering process is at a very advanced stage. It is expected that a decision on the appointment of a preferred service provider will be made when the board of the Health Service Executive meets on 1 June.

The outside company will provide an independent input into the administration of the scheme and will also have the necessary experience given the magnitude of the repayments involved. Those applying for repayment may not have been satisfied if the Health Service Executive had been assigned responsibility to calculate the amount of repayments due because the former health boards had applied charges in the first instance.

The company will help to reassure the public that the scheme is being operated in the most effective and equitable way possible. The HSE has informed my Department that it is satisfied the company recommended for selection is the most economically advantageous option and that the costs will be significantly less than those quoted in the first tendering process, which was halted in December last year.

The HSE has also stated its support on the decision to engage an outside company because it is not in a position to administer the scheme itself. The making of repayments on this scale is not core work and, given its extensive commitments to the provision of health services, the resources required to administer the scheme are not available within the HSE without diverting staff from normal duties. We are not making this up or stating it within the Department. The HSE has itself stated this. The notion has been put around that since the health services were reformed, there are hundreds or thousands of people twiddling their thumbs looking for other jobs. These people all have serious jobs to do.

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