Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. As he is aware, a court case on this matter is under way and even today there are negotiations on the possibility of settling the case to the satisfaction of consultants and the Government which, of course, is tasked with protecting taxpayers' money and money that should be going towards providing a better health service for patients. This case is active and negotiations are under way and, as a result, I am obviously limited in what I can say in response to the question.

What I can say is a huge number of consultants in the country work very hard and work well beyond the hours for which they are contracted. They deserve our thanks and respect. We also know, not from the Government but from "RTÉ Investigates" that there are other consultants who breach their contracts and who work full-time in private and public practice, which is impossible. We have seen from "RTÉ Investigates" that there are consultants who breach their contracts and who work in private hospitals when they should be in posts in public hospitals and who see more private patients than they are supposed to see. This is a serious issue because it is money and time that should be dedicated to public patients, many of whom have been on waiting lists for a very long time and who are facing overcrowded conditions. Let us not forget that the case the consultants have made is that the State breached their contract. What sort of case do they have if it turns out they actually breached their own contract? If their case is that they deserve money, compensation, hundreds of thousands of euros - or perhaps millions - for each individual at the expense of the taxpayer and if it is based on the idea that the State broke their contract, they do not have a case if they broke their own contract also.

It is not unprecedented for the State or its agencies to use investigators or inspectors when it comes to issues of this matter. We have, for example, welfare inspectors who check to see that people are genuinely disabled if they are in receipt of disability benefit or invalidity benefit. We have people who check on individuals to ensure that they are not claiming welfare while also working in the black economy. We have tax inspectors, part of whose role is to check up on people in all parts of society to see whether they are compliant in the context of paying tax. We had Revenue inspectors, for example, counting the number of chip bags that come out of a chip shop to see whether the owner is complying with the law.

This should not be considered an unprecedented action.

To answer some of the specific questions asked by the Deputy, the HSE's legal representative, Philip Lee, engaged private investigators to examine the practice of these three individual consultants. The Departments of Health, Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform were aware of this approach-----

See this speech in context