Drumm defends €15m spent on outside consultants

HEALTH Service Executive boss Brendan Drumm yesterday defended the €15 million spent on outside consultants last year, saying it was just a fraction of the authority’s budget.

Prof Drumm said the money spent on consultants represented just 0.1% of the total €15 billion spent by the HSE last year.

“I think to find an agency anywhere in the world in any area of work that spent just 0.1% on consultants would be an incredible achievement,” he said.

Prof Drumm pointed out that a comparison of other agencies in Ireland, even those in the public sector, would show that the health authority’s bill for consultants was way out of line simply because it was so low.

“If the suggestion is that the health service can exist without consultancy, I think that is just incredible. We have a real need to drive a massive transformation programme that needs very significant input from the outside,” he said.

Chairman of the HSE board, Liam Downey, said consultants’ fees were under continuous review.

“All consultancy contracts that are engaged in now are reviewed as a matter of routine by the chief executive and the board like all other items of expenditure that are tightly controlled at the present time,” he said.

Mr Downey pointed out that when Prof Drumm joined the HSE, it was agreed that there would be advisory support services provided.

“Five people came to the HSE as part of that process and that was supported by the board and regarded as essential in order to help the initial drive to get momentum started,” he said.

One other consultant was hired in the absence of a permanent person responsible for human resources.

“The up to date position is that most of those services have been discontinued at this point,” he said.

Mr Downey said that there were just two people who were providing consultancy support to the chief executive.

Both had contracts that would terminate at the same time as the chief executive’s.