Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the Minister of State's reply in this context. As I said at the outset, this is not impugning anybody's character but it would be remiss of me in my role as an Opposition spokesperson not to raise the issue and call for clarity and a statement from Mr. O'Brien as director general of the HSE which, bear in mind, oversees the spending of approximately €13 billion per year of public funds and has a critical role in the lives of people on a daily basis, as was discussed in the previous Topical Issue matter.

I did not expect the Minister of State to refer to it but Mr. O'Brien stated he was unaware this top-up continued to be paid and that it was an error in the context of the HSE not receiving sanction from the Department of Health or the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. When Mr. O'Brien was appointed director general designate, did he at that stage request that top-up payment be rolled into the financial package, or remunerative package, he was looking for as director general designate of the HSE? If that is the case, then a major issue has to be addressed because the error would have come to light at that stage and yet he would have still have insisted on it. That is the key issue. We have to ascertain whether that request was made. I do not know if it was but we need a statement from Mr. O'Brien and the Department that at no stage was a top-up requested to be formalised as part of his remunerative package as director general designate. That is the key issue because as the Minister of State and I have said, this is an issue of credibility and consistency and the idea that the nod and the wink practice of the past in regard to top-ups must be rooted out. Clearly, the person most in charge and responsible for rooting them out will be the director general himself and there cannot be any questions about that particular individual in terms of top-up payments when he is trying to root out a practice that has gone viral through lots of other agencies.

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