Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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235. To ask the Minister for Health the extent to which his attention was drawn to the use of private investigators to track hospital consultants pertaining to public and private work; if contracts were used to detail the surveillance required; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28602/18]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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There are occasions when it may be appropriate utilise the services of a private investigator in the context of court proceedings and in this instance it arose in the context of defending the recent High Court cases taken by consultants who held Consultant Contract 2008 in pursuit of pay increases. 

Consistent with the Government decision in February 2017 to robustly defend the High Court cases, my Department, in conjunction with the Department of Finance, and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, supported the decision of the HSE to utilise private investigators in preparing defences to the lead cases. This was not brought to my attention as it was considered to be consistent with the Government decision. 

The three Departments reaffirmed their position in the lead up to the hearing date for the ten lead cases. This investigative work was required to gather evidence to support the HSE's counter-claims in relation to non-compliance by consultants. It is noted that the use of surveillance by a private investigator was limited to a small number of the lead cases.