Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

On the same subject, I would feel relieved if the NTMA were taking charge of some of the treasury functions of the HSE. Compared to what is happening at present, it might be for the better. The Minister might let us have a note on the issue.

Given the changes in the financial markets and the risk factors that are now much higher because of the turbulence in the markets, as the Minister acknowledged, is risk profiling done on how the NTMA deals with these issues or is that left entirely to the NTMA? This is a technical and skilled area of banking and treasury management, but it is important to know what is the risk profiling.

Another area under the NTMA's management which is also subject to specific legislation is the National Development Finance Agency, NDFA. I recall, as I am sure Deputy Bruton probably does, that the NDFA and a number of its then key executives came in to the Committee on Finance and the Public Service and, if I recall correctly, the Committee of Public Accounts. We heard an interesting presentation on its purchasing for the HSE and a number of visits it made to centres of excellence in cancer treatment technology, including linear accelerators, in the US and in a number of other locations. As I understood their presentations, they had brought forward a plan to invest in linear accelerators for a number of centres of excellence for cancer treatment in Dublin and around the country. However, subsequently I saw a good deal of material in the media suggesting that the HSE had a different viewpoint, which seemed to be broadly that it would be much better to purchase these linear accelerators by traditional direct procurement methods of direct State purchase, presumably through the HSE.

Can the Minister offer any insight, if not now directly then maybe by way of a note, as to what exactly happened because in the presentations we heard in the Committee on Finance and the Public Service, and indeed in the Committee of Public Accounts, in the last Dáil the strong suggestion from the NTMA following visits it had made to a number of centres of excellence in the US — there was a Powerpoint presentation on this — was that it had a model on the procurement of the latest top-of-the-range equipment but subsequently the HSE appeared to disagree with this approach.

These were very significant investments by the State as part of the NDP in improving our technology in cancer treatment and I never really heard what happened. Is it all part of some ongoing dispute on how these matters are financed or will some of these additional powers here give the NTMA more authority in decisions like this? I would be grateful if the Minister elaborated on what this means in terms of the relationship between the HSE and the NTMA.

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