Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Minister for Health further to the statement in the Dáil on 20 December 2012 that an internal audit of primary care centres was conducted and a report was produced on 9 October 2012, if he will lay before the Oireachtas a copy of that report. [4212/13]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy is aware, at the request of the Secretary General of my Department made on the 4th October 2012, a review was undertaken by the Department's Internal Audit Unit to determine whether or not any documentation generated from 2011 (memos, notes, representations, e-mails etc), was available within the Department, that would connect the Minister for Health and or/his advisers, or anybody acting on behalf of the Minister, to the selection of sites for the proposed primary care centres in Balbriggan and Swords. Following the examination of documents by the Internal Audit Unit, a reply issued to the Secretary General on the 9^th October 2012, advising him that no documentation relevant to the request was found. A copy of this reply is included for the Deputy's information.

Secretary General,

You requested the Internal Audit Unit (IAU) to ascertain whether or not any documentation generated from 2011 to date (memos, notes, representations, e-mails etc), was available within the Department that would connect Minister Reilly and or/his advisers or anybody acting on behalf of the Minister to the selection of sites for the proposed primary care centres in Balbriggan and Swords. I understand the scope of the request did not relate to any policy decision to locate a centre in either town.

The Internal Audit Unit asked Primary Care Unit, Capital, EU/International and Research Policy Unit, the offices of Minister Reilly and the former Minister of State, in addition to Minister Reilly’s 3 advisers, to undertake a search with a view to locating any relevant documentation All parties advised the IAU that no records relevant to the request could be located.

In order to provide assurance, we also requested all relevant files to be submitted to IAU for further examination. A total of sixteen files, twelve from Capital, EU/International and Research Policy Unit and 4 from Primary Care were made available for this purpose. In addition, Minister Reilly’s Reps database was examined by your Private Secretary and separately checked by IAU. The former Minister of State’s Reps database was also searched, as was the Department’s PQ database for 2011 and 2012.

The checks carried out by the IAU confirmed that no documentation relevant to your request was found.

As advised previously, Minister Reilly’s constituency office was not contacted as the activities of that office are outside the remit of this Department’s internal audit function.

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Niall Staunton

Internal Audit Unit

9 October 2012.