The Health Service Executive (HSE) is set to record a deficit of more than €250 million for the first three months of 2022, the Dáil’s spending watchdog will be told.
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) will meet HSE chief executive Paul Reid and Department of Health secretary general Robert Watt on Thursday to quiz them on spending and recruitment in the health service as well as oversight by the Government.
There was controversy on these issues earlier this year amid claims there has been “sloppiness” in the HSE’s financial reporting and “fake targets” for hiring staff.
A whistleblower sent a dossier of disclosures to the PAC which includes an account of a meeting of Department of Health officials in January where these claims were made.
The HSE defended its record and rejected allegations made when the claims were the subject of media reports in February.
Mr Watt is expected to tell the PAC there is “strong oversight” of spending in the health sector.
Mr Reid’s opening statement to the committee provides an update on the HSE’s financial position for the first three months of 2022.
He says that the draft financial position at the end of March “shows a year to date deficit of €250.9 million or 4.96 per cent”.
He says “a significant element of this [is] being driven by the direct impact of Covid-19″.
Mr Reid says that the HSE’s core activities — those not related to Covid-19 — will “naturally increase” in the coming weeks and months and that “the impact of ‘delayed’ care will also increase demand for core services”.
The PAC will be told that the HSE’s 2021 Annual Financial Statements (AFS) have been submitted to the Comptroller and Auditor General for audit and that he understands this is nearing finalisation.
Subject to completion of the audit it is expected that the 2021 AFS will record a deficit of €195 million which is “entirely due to an excess of Covid-related costs, including vaccination and test-and-trace costs, over available Covid funding”.
Mr Reid says that in arriving at the net deficit of €195 million, the excess of Covid costs over Covid budget “was substantially offset by a surplus” related to core HSE activities.
He adds that this “was due to the regrettable suppression of core activity and knock-on delays in progressing new developments, largely driven by the pandemic and our need to respond effectively to it”.
Mr Reid says over the two years of the pandemic — 2020 and 2021 — the HSE will have recorded a combined revenue surplus of €5 million, or a combined surplus of €65 million over the three years from 2019 to 2022.
Mr Watt’s opening statement says the Department of Health conducts its oversight role in relation to the HSE’s financial performance “on a near daily basis”.
He says: “There are strong oversight and governance systems in place to manage expenditure in the health sector throughout the budgetary cycle.”
In advance of the meeting, PAC chairman Brian Stanley said: “A number of concerns in relation to the oversight of Ireland’s health system have been the subject of considerable commentary and public debate.”
He said the PAC wants to try to establish the extent of those issues and examine how the HSE and the department “propose to resolve these matters”.
