Nursing Homes Repayment Scheme.

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 3 November 2009

Tuesday, 3 November 2009

Ceisteanna (441)

Michael Ring

Ceist:

504 Deputy Michael Ring asked the Minister for Health and Children if she will explain the disparity between replies given by her Department on a specific topic (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [38551/09]

Freagraí scríofa

Minister for Health and Children (Deputy Mary Harney)

The Health Service Executive has responsibility for administering the health repayment scheme in conjunction with the appointed scheme administrator KPMG/McCann Fitzgerald. Since the scheme commenced in 2006, a total of €18.654m has been paid to date to all companies that have been involved with the scheme. A breakdown of payments made to each of the companies is as follows:

Company	YTD 30/9/09	2008	2007	2006	Total
	€m	€m	€m	€m	€m
HSE
Scheme Administrator
KPMG & McCann Fitzgerald	2.017	8.653	2.274	1.118	14.062
IT Consultancy
Client Solutions	Nil	0.011	Nil	Nil	0.011
IBM	0.001	0.031	0.034	0.028	0.094
Iron Mountain	0.002	0.001	0.002	0.002	0.007
Contract Consultancy
Accenture	Nil	Nil	Nil	0.012	0.012
Advertising
Drury Communications	Nil	0.069	0.019	0.097	0.185
BBDO	Nil	Nil	0.417	0.727	1.144
Legal Expenses
Various Solicitor Firms	0.514	1.245	0.770	0.486	3.015
Appeals Office
IT Consultancy
Complete Network Technology	Nil	0.015	0.007	0.005	0.027
IT Force	0.009	0.024	0.009	0.044	0.086
Office Expenses
Brunswick Press Ltd.	Nil	0.005	Nil	Nil	0.005
Audit
Grant Thornton	0.006	Nil	Nil	Nil	0.006
Totals	2.549	10.054	3.532	2.519	18.654

The replies provided to previous questions referred to payments made to companies working on the administration of the scheme as at the relevant dates. PQs 16923/08 and 23910/08 referred to payments made to various companies whereas the reply to PQ 37120/09 referred only to payments made to the Scheme Administrator. When responding to PQ 37120/09, the HSE inadvertently provided information on payments made to the scheme administrator excluding VAT, which explains the lower expenditure amounts made to the Scheme Administrator when compared to amounts previously reported. In respect of the decreased figure for Client Solutions, credits were issued to the HSE by Client Solutions against invoices charged in error to the Repayment Scheme.

I wish to confirm now that the total payments made to date in respect of all companies working on the administration of the scheme since 2006 amounts to €18.654m.