Enda Kenny: HSE staff must repay any misspent cash

Any money misspent by HSE staff must be repaid to the State, Taoiseach Enda Kenny has insisted.

The rebuke follows a damning report by the Comptroller & Auditor General which listed lavish spending on luxury hotels by the HSE.

The State’s financial watchdog revealed that €500 a night was spent on a Milan hotel, with €300 a night paid for Dublin’s upmarket Merrion Hotel at a time when the health service is facing a funding crisis.

Mr Kenny expressed concerns at the contents of the probe which stated that there was an overspend of millions.

“It is not acceptable, monies paid in the wrong should be paid back, people who are not authorised to travel should reimburse these things,” Mr Kenny told the Dáil. “It is a draft report and obviously the HSE must answer to the Comptroller & Auditor General in respect of it.”

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams said the trolleys crisis was getting out of control, with more than 500 people a day unable to access a bed in hospitals treating them.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin quoted a letter from an emergency department doctor which compared Beaumont Hospital to a “healthcare Guantanamo”.

Mr Kenny insisted that Health Minister Leo Varadkar was getting to grips with the continuing trolleys crisis, as he attacked Mr Martin for his time in the health post when resources were much more plentiful. “If money was the solution to the problems, then it would have been sorted long ago,” he told TDs.