HSE Funding

Dáil Éireann Debate, Friday - 16 September 2016

Friday, 16 September 2016

Ceisteanna (1152)

David Cullinane

Ceist:

1152. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health further to Parliamentary Question No. 581 of 19 July 2016, the reason the HSE compliance unit is not able to provide a more definitive answer to the question as to the number of section 38 and section 39 organisations that are funded by the HSE than the approximate figure of over 1,700; if it is the case that the HSE compliance unit is unaware of the number of organisations that are funded by the HSE and if this is the reason for the lack of certainty with the figures; if he is satisfied that the HSE compliance unit does not know the number of section 38 and section 39 organisations that were audited in each year from 2011 to 2015; his views on whether it is acceptable and reasonable that the HSE compliance unit is incapable of forming a factual and informed judgment on the compliance rate among section 38 and section 39 organisations due to a lack of even the most basic element of the necessary research, namely a simple list of the organisations that have submitted audited returns to the HSE and those that have not; if he agrees with the head of the HSE compliance unit that such a basic building block of compliance oversight, that is, a simple list of those which have submitted an audit and those which have not, constitutes detailed information and is outside the current administrative and bureaucratic practices and procedures of the HSE compliance unit; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25019/16]

Freagraí scríofa

Minister for Health

In PQ No. 581 of 19 July the Deputy asked the HSE for the number of Section 38 & Section 39 agencies that have returned audited accounts for the years 2011 – 2016. The response stated that over 1,700 voluntary agencies are currently funded by the HSE and that all funded agencies in receipt of €150,000 or more are obliged to furnish annual audited accounts. The HSE has confirmed to my officials that the 39 Section 38 Service Providers and the top 11 Section 39 Service Providers, which account for over 80% of overall funding, have submitted audited accounts for 2014. The process in relation to the 2015 audited accounts is ongoing at present.

The HSE has informed me that, as indicated in its response to the Deputy, its online Service Provider Governance (SPG) system does not hold the information required to provide the precise details requested, although the next phase of its development, currently underway, will be able to do so for Accounts received from 2016. The only way to provide the detailed information requested would be to ask the operational staff in the 9 Community Healthcare Organisations (CHO) to examine in the region of 2,200 documents (440 providers required to submit audited accounts each year for five years, 2011 – 2015). In addition, the Director of Compliance understands that many of these records will at this stage not be retained in current office files but will have been archived.

Given the current pressures on the limited number of operational staff within each CHO who deal with Service Providers and Service Users on a daily basis, this would impose a significant additional burden on these operational staff and would be considered to be an inappropriate use of limited operational resources.

However, the Director of Compliance has requested each of the 9 CHOs to confirm that the Section 38 and 39 Service Providers within their operational area who are obliged to furnish audited accounts have done so for 2014 and 2015, and when the HSE has this information to hand it will forward it to the Deputy.