Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)
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Question 132: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the controls and monitoring systems that she has put in place to ensure good financial management practices in the Health Service Executive and to address shortcomings identified in the audit undertaken by the Department of Finance; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32161/08]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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The Health Service Executive (HSE) has its own Vote and the Chief Executive Officer is the Accounting Officer for the Vote. It must manage its Vote in accordance with the standard Public Financial Procedures. This includes the preparation of the Annual Appropriation Account which is audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General. As Accounting Officer, the Chief Executive Officer submits monthly reports on Vote expenditure to my Department. These form part of the Government's monitoring of expenditure across all Votes. In addition, officials of my Department and the Department of Finance meet with the HSE on a monthly basis to monitor expenditure trends. Each year the HSE also submits to me, along with its Service Plan, an estimate of its income and expenditure which is consistent with its approved Vote. It is required under the Health Act 2004 to prepare an annual report and statement of accounts. These accounts are also audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General.

These financial management controls form part of a wider framework of accountability which is provided for in the Health Act 2004. This includes, in particular, the submission of a Service Plan every year for my approval. The Plan must include the volume of services to be provided by the Executive, its capital plan and details of employee numbers. My Department receives monthly progress reports on the Service Plan. There are quarterly meetings between my Department's Secretary General and the CEO of the Executive, with their respective management teams, to evaluate the implementation of the Service Plan. In addition, there is ongoing contact between officials in my Department and their counterparts in the HSE in relation to service and expenditure issues.

I am aware of the just published report by the Comptroller and Auditor General in which he raised a number of concerns in relation to financial management within the HSE. In response, the Accounting Officer set out the measures taken, and being taken, to improve in-year expenditure management. A report, commissioned by my Department, by a former Secretary General of the Department of Finance is due to be completed soon. It is likely to make recommendations for further improvements in financial reporting by the HSE. Work is also in progress to develop a new financial system for the Executive to replace the existing multiple systems inherited from the former health boards and other agencies which were incorporated in the HSE.

Robust financial management systems are an essential feature of any health service but they are not an end in themselves. Our primary focus has to be on patients. Each hospital, each local health office, managers, clinicians and others working in the health services have a responsibility to ensure not just that they live within their assigned budgets each year but that they also strive to provide the best possible service to patients and other clients of our health services within those budgets.