Harney under fire over HSE’s €56m spending ‘error’

HEALTH Minister Mary Harney is under pressure this morning to explain why the Health Service Executive (HSE) broke financial procedures last year to spend €56 million.

The latest health spending fiasco emerged late yesterday evening when Finance Minister Brian Cowen said in a surprise statement to the Dáil that €56m in HSE capital funding had been inappropriately spent as current expenditure.

The funding had been allocated to the HSE’s capital fund in 2005 and was earmarked to be carried forward and spent on capital projects later this year.