Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

For some time Sinn Féin has been trying to get the Taoiseach, other Ministers, particularly the Minister for Health, Deputy James Reilly, to set out in full the circumstances in which the Minister appointed the founder of and a 50% shareholder in a private health consultancy firm to the position of chairman of the West-North West Hospitals Group. The group then awarded the potentially lucrative public contract for a review and a report on maternity services in that region to the same private consultancy firm in direct breach of guidelines. Despite raising this issue with the Taoiseach and an Teachta Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin raising it directly with the Minister for Health, there has been no full statement on the issue. This flies in the face of the programme for Government commitment that "We will pin down accountability for results at every level of the public service – from Ministers down ... [and] will cut back the waste and political cronyism built up over the last decade". There is no accountability on this issue and it is a scandal that the Government is drip feeding the information instead of coming in and, transparently, doing its duty by telling the Dáil what happened and allowing us to make a judgment on it. My questions concern how the founder of and a 50% shareholder in a private health consultancy firm was appointed as chair of a public body by the Government and awarded a major public contract. Will the Government publish the HSE's review of how the firm was awarded the contract to examine maternity services in the region?

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