Little has changed

At the heart of wrong government policy choices is a lack of interrogation of the options, writes Gerard Howlin

ON Tuesday night the Dáil select sub-committee on health met to consider an allocation of an additional €360m for Dr James Reilly’s department, over and above what has been budgeted for this year.

The importance of this, the HSE that spends it, the minister responsible for it, and the select sub-committee meant to question the lot of it, was starkly set out as far back as May 17 by Dr Reilly. Belatedly and over four-and-a-half months into the year being budgeted for, he set out the context to the committee intended to interrogate him on our behalf.