Kilkenny TD John McGuinness lambasts poor spending in health service

Fianna Fáil TD for Carlow-Kilkenny, John McGuinness, has heavily criticised the 'management' of spending in the health service by the Department of Health.

Speaking in the Dáil, Mr McGuinness claimed there was 'little or no reform around the management of taxpayers money' in most government departments, 'especially health.'

"For years we have debated the integrated finance system and the integrated management system for patients and nothing has happened. We have seen very senior people from the commercial world resign from boards of the HSE or from activities within the HSE because they say they met with huge resistance to change," he said.

"The status quo in the Department of Health and the HSE cannot continue. It cannot continue because regardless of how much money we put in we are not just funding the services in the HSE and the delivery it is responsible for, we are also funding the huge waste that went on the previous year, the year before, the year before that. If we do not correct that we will be in the same difficulties next year and the year after regardless of which Minister is in place."

The Kilkenny native went on to allege that political figures have behaved disrespectfully towards health workers and patients.

"Ministers should be brave enough to put their names to the statements we are reading in the papers about what they think of the Minister or the allocation. They are showing total irresponsibility. They are irresponsible in their statements. They do not have any regard for the impact of those statements on people who are working within the HSE or those receiving services from the HSE. They certainly do not have respect for the patients, absolutely not. They are showing an awful lot of weakness in their own characters.

"If we are to have budgets and if we are to have a well-run organisation to deliver on those budgets then we must start telling the truth. Somebody in the HSE or in the Department of Health has to tell the truth about what is happening. Did anyone hold an exit interview with those people who resigned from the organisation? Did anyone take up the recommendations of Dr. Eddie Molloy, for example, who in the AV room many years ago told us we can have as much reform as we like but if we do not have the change managers in place to implement the reforms."

McGuinness, first elected to the Dáil in 1997, believes solving the ongoing issues within the HSE will require 'transparency' and 'accountability'.

"One of the ways we get information from the HSE is through parliamentary questions. A parliamentary question was sent to the HSE in relation to the section 44 report, which is all about money owed to people who are now retired or a cohort of people still working in the HSE. I asked if the €42 million was set aside to meet and cover that expenditure. I was told that the question could not be answered and yet the information was released to some other individual under a freedom of information request, not a Member of the House. There is a need for fundamental change in our attitude towards transparency and accountability within the HSE. We are not getting it.

"Until we get that then we will continue to preside over all sorts of misspending, inefficiency in spending and poor planning. Change and reform is not only about money and how we spend it: it is about planning for the loss of jobs and people leaving positions; it is about having the correct number of GPs; it is about having the correct number of consultants; and it is about ensuring that Government policy is put in place," he commented.