The HSE has been fined €4.3 million in the past two years for not paying its bills on time including for purchases including cleaning products and toilet rolls, the Dáil has heard.
Sinn Féin TD Mark Ward said “nobody is being held to account” as he highlighted fines the health service pays for delays in paying its invoices.
“Every time a bill is not paid on time by the HSE for something as simple as cleaning products or toilet rolls or something like that, they get a fine,” he said.
“In the last two years the HSE have been fined €4.3 million for not paying their bills on time,” funding he said could be used for badly needed services.
He was speaking during a debate about addressing Government spending waste and accountability, when controversial projects including the €336,000 Leinster House bike shelter and the €1.4 million security hut at Government buildings were highlighted.
Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Jack Chambers said his department “will carry out a full review of public financial procedures. This review will specifically examine the accountability requirements in terms of providing value for money.”
He added that his department had also recently introduced “the updated 2024 internal audit standards, as well as the financial reporting reform for the Civil Service”. This showed that the Government and his department “continue to raise accountability standards in the public service using best international practice”.
The Minister was speaking in the Independent Ireland private member’s debate introduced by Cork South-West TD Michael Collins who called for a department of efficiency and reform.
He said it was a “practical, no-nonsense measure” and “what real oversight should look like. We need independent auditors, not political appointees.
“We need experts from the private sector, people who know how to run a business, manage costs and keep projects on time and on budget. This new watchdog should have real power, including the power to arrive unannounced, dig through the books and expose waste in real time.
“There should be no more soft reports, no more lessons learned. If waste is found, heads should roll and the public should know exactly who is responsible.”
But Independent Minister of State Kevin ‘Boxer’ Moran defended the controversial projects in rowdy exchanges with Mr Collins. He wanted to counter the narrative that accountability was not at the heart of Government expenditure.
Mr Moran pointed out that during the election campaign Independent Ireland “talked about a Luas for every town in Ireland” and were now adopting an “Elon Musk type approach – kill the system, kill the people – the very people providing for this country.”
The Minister, who has responsibility for the Office of Public Works (OPW) said he was the “first one to say and apologies to people that mistakes were made”, even though he was not a member of the last government.
He hit out at the Opposition for calling the bike shelter a “bike shed” and said it was built at a listed building (Leinster House) that is “cherished by people all over the world”.
He also defended OPW expenditure on a wall at the Hill of Tara and said the OPW was ‘not building a wall’ but carrying out maintenance work. It might have gone on for 12 years and go on for another 12 years, he said, but “the Hill of Tara never closed”.
And he said that opposition parties and some Independents had “failed” to enter government when they had the opportunity. “You talked about government but you failed to go into government.”
He said “I went in because I believe I can make changes, I can deliver”.
But Mr Collins told him “you should be ashamed of yourself” for defending the controversial projects.
