Martin under fire for spending €30m on 'unnecessary health reports'

THE Department of Health has come under fire for wasting €30 million of tax payers' money on unnecessary reports while the health service is struggling to cope with demand.

The opposition parties rounded on former Health Minister Micheál Martin yesterday saying he continuously commissioned reports "so he could avoid making decisions."

Some of the 115 reports commissioned by Mr Martin which drew the sharpest criticism were the National Health Strategy which cost €820,000, the Brennan report setting out a value for money policy in the health service which cost €615,757 and the €741,051 Hanly report on restructuring hospital services.

The Labour Party slammed the Health Strategy as "an election gimmick", the Hanly report as "dead in the water" and the Brennan report as having "already been completed by another set of consultants."

Both parties questioned the value of compiling reports on areas such as child and adolescent psychiatric needs, hospital bed capacity and poverty strategies when the Government then failed to act on the recommendations.

Seymour Crawford, the FG TD who first asked for details of the numbers of reports commissioned during Mr Martin's tenure, said "many of the reports were initiated for purely political purposes as they were never acted upon".

"For example, take the report by Kevin Bonner on Monaghan General Hospital. This cost €43,584 and was designed to solve the hospital's problems. Yet some 15 months later it has been virtually ignored," Mr Crawford said.

According to the details from the Department of Health, some of the €30m spent on reports included:

The national health and lifestyle surveys which cost €669,985.

The forum on flouridation which cost €328,100.

The preliminary inquiry into the handling of child sexual abuse in Ferns which cost €423,861.

The Prospectus Report on changing the health service structures cost which €573,000.

The Hollywood Report into radiotherapy services which cost €64,858.

"Simple things like increasing medical card figures, introducing step-down beds as promised and putting another 600 beds into the health services would have been much more productive," said Labour party health spokesperson Liz Mc Manus said.

The Department of Health said it could not comment until it had viewed the latest figures.