Ruary martin

The HSE was €580 million over budget by the end of July. At the Public Accounts Committee, I asked a straightforward question: What additional outcomes have patients seen for that extra spending? The HSE outlined the pressures behind the overspend, including rising drug costs, staffing pressures and an ageing population with more complex healthcare needs. These are real challenges. But spending more money does not automatically mean delivering better services. We spend enormous amounts of time debating how much funding our public services should receive. We need to be just as focused on what happens after that money is allocated. What are we getting for it? Are patients seeing better outcomes? Public spending should ultimately be measured by what it delivers, not just how much we spend.

The HSE reports approximately €5.5 billion in procurement spending each year. That's almost a quarter of its overall expenditure. But when I examined its annual reports, I noticed something. The same approximate €5.5 billion figure appeared in both 2024 and 2025. At the Public Accounts Committee, I wanted to establish how that figure was calculated. The HSE confirmed that it was based on estimated contract values, rather than the actual amount spent on procurement during the year. We spend enormous amounts of time debating how much money should go into our public services. But we need to be just as focused on what happens after that money is allocated, how it is spent, what we get in return and whether we are getting value for money. The HSE is one of the largest purchasers in the country. With that comes enormous purchasing power and an opportunity to negotiate better prices, manage suppliers effectively and make public money go further. But to do that properly, you first need good information. And there has been real progress. Following our engagement with the HSE, it reduced its purchase-order publication threshold from €100,000 to €20,000, making significantly more spending visible to the public. The difference is striking: Q1 2025: €305.7m published | 940 records Q1 2026: €694.2m published | 7,918 records That's 127% more spending visible and 742% more individual records published. At PAC, the HSE also confirmed that its new financial management system now gives it much greater visibility of actual purchasing data. Importantly, it committed to providing exact procurement-spend figures for 2025 and 2026 in its 2026 annual report, rather than continuing to rely on estimates. Work is also underway to connect contracts, purchase orders and payments, with a pilot planned for Q3 and reporting outputs targeted for Q4. This brings us closer to what I've been advocating through the Golden Thread: Tender → Contract Award → Contract → Purchase Order → Payment → Outcome It's also why I am bringing forward my Tender to Payment Public Transparency Bill. The State needs to spend better