Martin denies wasting millions on health reports

Enterprise Minister Micheál Martin has rejected accusations that he wasted millions of euro in taxpayers’ money on commissioning reports in his former role as Health Minister.

Fine Gael TD Seymour Crawford said today that Mr Martin spent more than €40m on reports that were often never implemented.

The minister responded by saying he was annoyed by the accusation as Mr Crawford was one of the people calling for such reports.

However, the Fine Gael TD said this was "bunkum" as he had only ever called for the appointment of someone to deal with the situation surrounding Monaghan General Hospital.

He accused Mr Martin of commissioning reports to avoid making political decisions and said 145 such reports were commissioned by the minister within the space of four years.

“I have no doubt that some of them are useful and some of them will serve their purpose,” Mr Crawford said, but he queried whether it was necessary to draw up so many.