Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 137: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children if she has devolved full control and authority including accountability to the Houses of the Oireachtas and to the Health Services Executive; if the Health Service Executive will in future determine its own budget or if the budget will derive from moneys voted to her Department; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [8766/06]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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The Minister for Health and Children is responsible for health policy and will continue to be accountable to the Oireachtas in that regard. The Health Service Executive, which is the national body with statutory responsibility under the Health Act 2004 for the management and delivery of health and personal social services, will be involved in informing the making of policy by the Minister. The 2004 Act, which provided for the establishment of the Health Service Executive on a statutory basis, contains a number of provisions to ensure that the HSE is accountable to the Oireachtas. Under the Act, the Minister for Health and Children is required to lay before the Houses of the Oireachtas the HSE's corporate plan and service plan after he or she has approved it. The HSE's audited financial statements and annual report, as well as the report of the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General, must also be laid before the Houses. Under the Act the HSE's chief executive is appointed as its accounting officer. This provision requires the establishment of a separate Vote for the HSE for the purposes of the Comptroller and Auditor General Acts 1866 to 1998. Therefore, the chief executive is accountable to the Committee of Public Accounts through the Comptroller and Auditor General for the HSE's appropriation accounts. The HSE is also obliged to prepare a set of income and expenditure accounts for which it is accountable to the Dáil through the Committee of Public Accounts. As accounting officer, the chief executive will be required to attend a meeting of that committee. The 2004 Act also requires that the chief executive must attend an Oireachtas committee to give an account of the HSE's general administration, if requested to do so, and that the chief executive or any other employee of the HSE must attend an Oireachtas committee if requested to do so by the Chairman of that committee. The funding available to the HSE is determined by Government at the conclusion of the annual Estimates process. The HSE's Estimate — Vote 40 — is presented to Dáil Éireann with the Estimates of all Departments and Government offices in abridged form in November of the preceding year.