Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister. He will be well aware, I am sure, of ongoing concerns on the part of the HSE and his own Department in respect of the very unorthodox corporate structure in St. Vincent's Healthcare Group, whereby it is not possible to identify where public money is actually going, or the extent to which there is intertwining of public and private in respect of consultants' use of facilities and spending of public money. Tony O'Brien referred to the private hospital as having a parasitic relationship with the public hospital.

This is a very real issue. The audit done by the HSE is still under consideration. Recently, the HSE announced that it was commencing the second part of that audit, covering the breach of contract arrangements by consultants. In the context of that issue alone, does the Minister accept that it would not be appropriate to add a further public hospital to a very unorthodox, mixed group? Does he agree that it would not be a good idea?

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