SENIOR HEALTH service officials who sanctioned controversial payments to the trade union Siptu would have been aware of the Government’s overall policy to support the partnership process, the secretary general of the Department of Health is expected to state today.
In a statement to the Dáil Public Accounts Committee Michael Scanlan is also expected to maintain that officials who approved the various payments to Siptu would have been cognisant of the backing of the then minister for health Micheál Martin for such partnership and training programmes. He is also expected to state that grant payments to Siptu could potentially date back to 1998 – much longer ago than previously known.
The committee is holding a second hearing into the controversy surrounding the Skill training scheme – which has been at the centre of a number of highly critical reports for shortcomings in governance arrangements – as well as contentious grants paid into a Siptu-linked bank account.
More than €4 million from various State sources was paid into this bank account known as the Siptu National Health and Local Authority Levy fund. However, Siptu at national level has said that it knew nothing about this account or the money paid into it.
About €2.3 million paid into this account came from the Department of Health and was channelled by the HSE, and just under €1 million came from a separate HSE partnership forum while nearly €800,000 came from a partnership body in the local authority sector.
The HSE has argued that money from this account was used to pay for foreign trips and study visits undertaken by trade union leaders and officials from the Department of Health, the HSE and the Department of Finance.
Mr Scanlan is expected to again argue foreign trips undertaken by officials of the Department of Health were relevant and worthwhile and that those who took part had received approval from their line managers.
It is understood that Mr Scanlan will state that the foreign trips were organised by an official of Siptu and that costs such as those for flights and accommodation were met from the Siptu National Health and Local Authority Levy fund.
He is expected to maintain that while these trips were ultimately funded by the exchequer, it is unclear at present how much of the money concerned was drawn from the grant provided by the Department of Health and how much came from other sources of funding paid into the bank account.
In his evidence to the committee Mr Scanlan is also expected to reveal that one retired official of the Department of Health received some consultancy payments from the Siptu national health and local authority levy fund.
It has been known that the department had sanctioned a grant to Siptu for its “frontline supervisors programme” in 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004 and had subsequently approved an annual €250,000 grant to the union’s health division to maintain support for its human resource/personnel development schemes.
However, a confidential internal report drawn up by the Department of Health into the controversy states that there were also four other grants, going back to November 1998 which could also be “potentially relevant”.
In a statement last night committee chairman Bernard Allen said: “The information which has come to light to date on this issue points to waste and poor return for the taxpayer. It appears that many people with only tenuous links to the subject matter went on foreign trips to the US and elsewhere paid for by the State.”
