PAC raises concerns €7m bus storage bill will grow

The chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee has raised concerns that the €7 million bill to store electric buses will continue to grow.

The committee previously heard a “serious litany of failures” led to more than 130 State-funded electric double-decker buses remaining unused because there is nowhere to charge them.

The National Transport Authority (NTA) revealed it is currently spending around €20,000 a week to store 98 electric buses that are still not ready to be deployed to the national fleet.

The NTA’s figures show that the storage cost for one bus per week is €202, and the costs could rise by another half a million euro before all the buses are deployed.

Sinn Féin TD John Brady said the weekly cost of storing the buses is a “scandal”.

Mr Brady said some of the buses in storage “aren’t due to come into service until next year”.

“On top of the €7m that has been spent already, there’s the prospect of spending another half a million euro in additional storage costs until all of those buses come into service.

“That can’t be allowed to happen.

“It’s absolutely ridiculous. This should be going into frontline services,” he added.

Fine Gael TD Grace Boland said the storage costs were a “disgrace”, adding that some buses have been in storage for over two years.

“It is not acceptable,” she said.

‘Millions of euro’ not recouped from private insurers

The PAC also heard that “millions of euro” has not been recouped from private insurers by public hospitals.

The committee called for a streamlined approach for resolving the issue, so it is not up to each individual hospital.

It agreed to write to the HSE on the issue and to discuss it further at a future sitting of the committee.

The committee’s chairman, Mr Brady, said it is “costing the public health system millions a year” and “there is an easy fix”.

“There needs to be a central role by the HSE and the department,” he said.

Fianna Fáil TD Paul McAuliffe said: “This is millions of euro that is due to public hospitals, and we can’t run it on a case-by-case basis anymore.”

He said, “a lot of the difficulties seem to be administrative”.

“You’re talking about the patient not signing the form when they are there, or the consultant not signing off on it,” said Mr McAuliffe.

He added he has “particular concerns” with how institutions are dealing with this matter.

“I believe there is an issue here that the HSE needs a role in,” he said.

Fine Gael TD James Geoghegan said: “But for a simple signature from the relevant consultant, those monies would be revenue for the hospital.”

Mr Geoghegan said the “taxpayer is the biggest funder of all of these hospitals”.

“It’s simply not acceptable that there’s any claims that are not sought, that are owing to the hospital at a time where we are spending billions in public spending to support our public hospitals,” added the Fine Gael TD.

He said he wants the amount to be “as close to zero”.

“This has to stop. This should be universally applied,” he said.

Meanwhile, Fine Gael TD Joe Neville said a “nonchalant attitude to this” has allowed “millions to go unclaimed from private insurers”.

“Paperwork is holding the State back from getting the money that it should be getting,” he said.

“These are the same hospitals that look for more money,” added Mr Neville.

“Here we have easy, quick wins but due to possibly a culture or people simply not caring – ultimately money is left behind,” he said.

The committee agreed to write to the HSE on the issue.

CHI staff emails around Christmas party ‘concerning’

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has called internal CHI staff emails around a €30,000 ‘donation’ to fund its staff Christmas party “concerning”.

CHI requested the donation from Aramark, which has contracting services with the company, in December 2022.

TDs said the emails showed staff were concerned the payment would be flagged by the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG).

Paul McAuliffe said he had “significant concerns” about the “culture that allowed this to happen”.

He said that in one case the amount was described as “additional services” but “we know no additional services took place”.

“When that amount was returned, it was returned as a refunded contribution,” he added.

Mr McAuliffe described the description on an invoice as an “incredibly serious matter”.

He said it was clear the request for the ‘donation’ “came from within CHI”.

James Geoghegan said somebody within CHI “smelled a rat”.

“They recorded that the C&AG might flag this. That was four years ago,” he said.

“Somebody was covering their behind. It was all a bit of ruse as for what these monies were actually for,” said Mr Geoghegan.

He added: “”None of this was done correctly. And they were fixing the books.

He suggested writing back to CHI to ask if it has met with Aramark and if its board has “considered all of the governance issues that happened here”.

The committee agreed to do this.