Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister said the High Court stated there is an administrative arrangement between the Department of Education and Skills and Bus Éireann, as opposed to a contract. Will the Minister explain what this entails?

I have learned something new today and it is a good day when one learns something new. Why can the Department of Social Protection not have a similar administrative arrangement with An Post for social welfare payments? I suspect these type of administrative arrangements do not have to go through tendering. This would get rid of the argument that a contract must be put out to tender. The High Court has opened up an interesting vista. While I am looking for the best price for the taxpayer, I would be concerned about administrative arrangements because they cannot be appealed as they are not a statutory process. Is value for money obtained if these are not put out to tender? Will the Minister send us a note on administrative arrangements versus contracts from a public expenditure viewpoint?

Amendment No. 40 deals with providing a list of service providers under section 10(9). I know it would be difficult to compile such as a list as it would be a rolling issue due to changes in contractors over time. I accept there would be practical difficulties in implementing this amendment. However, take a body such as the Health Service Executive, which has a variety of service providers such as section 38 and section 39 organisations. Some of them have rolling contracts from year to year. We have found that, because they are service providers and the funds are not voted by the Dáil, essentially they are a third party, and even the Committee of Public Accounts cannot compel them to give evidence before it. I am trying to get information on these bodies through freedom of information as it is taxpayers’ money in the end. There are 25 section 39 bodies getting over €5 million each from the State per annum.

The money is voted by the Oireachtas to the HSE but because it goes to the HSE we - even the Committee of Public Accounts or the Joint Committee on Health and Children - are precluded from holding to account the bodies who receive the money. I am trying to reverse the position now in order that we could get some information from those bodies through FOI.

See this speech in context