Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak in this debate. It is timely and I compliment my colleague, Deputy Calleary, for bringing forward the motion. It is quite evident from listening to the debate that there is outrage from all sides of the House about how a practice like this could be allowed to manifest itself over a number of years through the HSE. It is a damning indictment of the HSE monitoring systems and raises concerns. If this is going on, what other irregularities are happening within the HSE? If it were not for the RTE exposé, would we be any the wiser today?

We might not be any the wiser but based on reports and documents obtained by the Sunday Business Postin 2015, people in the HSE were concerned about phased payments as far back as 2012. They did nothing. A unit in the HSE identified phased dispensing as a risk in 2012. It proposed that the rules around phased dispensing should be clarified. HSE managers drew up circulars to advise GPs and pharmacists how to operate and claim appropriately for medicines that were being dispensed on a phased basis. However, these letters were never sent. That is alarming.

It is alarming to think that genuine concerns were highlighted to the powers that be within the HSE but nothing was done until it was exposed on the national airwaves. Unfortunately, that is not an isolated case. Time and again in this country some civil servants who have identified ongoing irregularities under their noses turn a blind eye until such time as it comes into the public domain. What are the consequences for people who knowingly and willingly turn a blind eye and fail to do their job? Are there any consequences for somebody who knowingly and willingly fails to do the job?

I am not surprised about this. There was an issue in my constituency a number of years ago where a number of local community pharmacists tendered to supply drugs to a number of community houses in Mullingar. How long did it take that tender to be finalised? It took more than 12 months. It was not even going to be put out to tender. A person identified to me that this new contract was to be awarded without being put out to tender. It was only after I rang the HSE and enquired as to why a new contract would be awarded without going out to tender that I was advised it would be going out to tender in due course. The tender date was altered, not once, not twice but on three separate occasions. I am not casting any aspersions on whoever was awarded the tender. Good luck to them if it was the most appropriate person who put in the best cost. However, I am certainly questioning the professionalism and the manner in which that contract was awarded initially and the subsequent tendering process. While I understand the Minister has confirmed there will be an investigation into what happened in this case, will there be an investigation into contracts awarded by the HSE throughout the State to ensure we are getting value for money?

Some people think it is not their money, but it is. It is taxpayers' money that is being abused and misused. In their contributions, many Members spoke about what that €12 million could do for projects in our respective constituencies for services for the most vulnerable people in society. I recall a question I posed to the Minister of State's colleague in advance of the summer recess with regard to how home help hours have been slashed, and I mean slashed, in the constituency of Longford-Westmeath in the six months of 2016. The Minister of State's colleague informed me they were in the process of rolling out more home help hours. I can tell the Minister of State that if somebody passes away and their home help hours are to be reallocated, only 25% of the hours are being reallocated. That is what is happening. People in urgent need of additional supports are not getting them.

I will give another example. In Athlone, before the summer, a lady who has a Down's syndrome child came to me. The child needs to attend speech and language therapy every week. This lady had been informed that the speech and language therapist was going on maternity leave, to which she is duly entitled, and that nobody would be hired to replace that speech and language therapist for the period that she was on maternity leave. What is that mother to think? How can she work with her child? Her child needs the therapy every week. When I rang the HSE, I was informed that there would be an agency speech and language therapist in place in September. We are now at the beginning of October and, guess what, no agency speech and language therapist. The chairperson of the local Down's syndrome branch came to see me at my clinic last Friday and asked what they are to do with their children. The only person who can understand her child is her mother. Consider the progress those children have made over the period they have the appropriate services in place working with them. Contrast this to the setbacks they will experience as the HSE is failing in its duty and obligation to put the necessary services in place.

I am not criticising the Minister of State personally for that as that is not her fault. However, it is the fault of the management of the HSE. When I speak to the parents of those children who urgently need that service, or when I call out to visit an elderly person living in his or her home and who cannot get access to home help, or when I call out and see a severely disabled man who was recommended 75 hours of personal assistance hours per week but the HSE can only give him 21 hours, what are those people to think? I share only three examples of three cases I am working with. I am sure the whole two days' debate could be taken up by different Members in this House sharing different examples. What are those people to think when they hear that Lloyds Pharmacy can get away with overcharging to the tune of €12 million and they cannot get access to the front-line services they need to have some quality of life?

I ask the Minister of State to allow the motion to be agreed, that unlike previous motions she would not just pay it lip service or simply agree not to oppose it in the House, that the recommendations proposed within the motion would be implemented in order that a situation such as this will never arise again, and that we first of all check there is no other similar scenario going on within the HSE.

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