Health

‘No black hole’ in HSE budget, says chief executive Paul Reid

Report of fake hiring targets does not ‘reflect reality’, says Taoiseach Micheál Martin

Paul Reid said comments in a newspaper report on the HSE were ‘unfortunate and not accurate’. Photograph: Tom Honan

Shauna Bowers
Vivienne Clarke
Mon Feb 14 2022 - 19:11

HSE chief executive Paul Reid has said there is “no black hole” in its budget and there would be no adjustment of hundreds of millions.

He was speaking after the Business Post reported a claim of “sloppiness” in the organisation’s financial reporting and said Department of Health officials spoke of a prospective prior-year adjustment in its budget for 2020 probably in the region of “hundreds of millions”. The newspaper noted “fake targets” for hiring staff and that a target of taking on 10,000 people in 2022 would not be met.

The claims were reported to have been made by Department of Health officials who did not know they were being recorded at a meeting on January 27th. The newspaper said the issues raised were in the public interest.

Mr Reid also said the Business Post report is not reflective of reality. He acknowledged it is a challenging global regarding recruitment, but added the HSE is striving to achieve objectives in the national service plan.

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“In terms of finance issues, we have a very strong oversight of our board, by the audit and risk committee . . . combined with the Department of Health,” he said. “They’re two shared issues we’re working on . . . it won’t be in the region of the hundreds of million, if there is any.”

Mr Reid said the reported comments do not “reflect the very strong focus we have on all aspects of finance in the HSE. We’re most certainly focused on the big issues which are waiting lists, reform of the health service, implementing regions and implementing Sláintecare. That’s what we’re focused on.”

Taoiseach Micheál Martin said claims that the HSE had fake hiring targets and sloppy financial reporting does not “reflect the reality on the ground”.

Mr Martin said there has been “record recruitment” in the organisation over the past two years and the health service has an “enormous budget”.

“Over the last two years, you’re looking at a net 12,500 extra people working in the health service,” he said.

“You’re looking at some extraordinary numbers that have been recruited. I don’t think what I read of those transcripts appears to be accurate at all. My own view is if you look at the extraordinary work by many people in the HSE, the conversations for me don’t quite reflect the reality on the ground.”

Mr Reid told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland “there is no black hole. What is happening . . . is an assessment of potential technical, financial adjustment and that’s a process that has been initiated by ourselves, the HSE, our audit and risk committee and the board to look at certain levels of provisions and accruals at the end of the year.”

Comments in the report are “unfortunate and not accurate”, he added. “The adjustment, if we do it, it will be less than €100 million.”

Factually incorrect

Mr Reid said the issues specifically related to recruitment and finance issues are factually incorrect.

“Some of the commentary around the targets . . . if you take the recruitment specifically since January 2020, about 24,000 people have been recruited into the health service, about 12,5000 net increase in our employees, about 9,500 people that are on leave that we have to recruit for and about 2,500 to 3,000 people on our contact tracing and vaccination centres.

“So when we set out to do the service plan for 2020 we have funding and we secured funding . . . for the 10,000 recruited staff.”

However, he noted a “difficult market” for health professionals and “the reality of it would probably be somewhere around 5,500 [but] we are still striving to recruit up to funded level of 10,000.”

Former HSE director general Tony O’Brien has said a single integrated financial management system should be implemented so that it would be known “in real time” what is spent and where.

The current system is not serving the HSE and any examination of spending is taking too long. The problem is it is taking a long time to fix, he told RTÉ radio’s Today with Claire Byrne show.

Mr O’Brien said there needs to be multiannual budgets as it is impossible to recruit and fill posts within a year. Consequently, there is a mismatch between what is realistic for the HSE to deliver and political ambitions.

Mr O’Brien also noted the service plan for 2022 had not yet been published.

On the same programme Sinn Féin health spokesman David Cullinane agreed on the need for multiannual budgeting and funding. He said 17 years on from establishment of the HSE and there is not a single integrated financial management system.

There needs to be “joined up thinking” and . . . the health service requires reforms promised in Sláintecare, he added.

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