To avoid a repeat of the recent Irish Water consultancy fees scandal, a fully-costed and transparent plan should be presented before any further action is taken on the Government’s universal health care proposals, says Senator Ronan Mullen.

“Whatever about the huge level of detail to be discussed about the new healthcare proposals, it is essential that we don’t have another fiasco like the setting up of Irish Water where millions upon millions of hard-pressed taxpayers’ money was wasted on consultancy fees, before anything at all is done about the health issue itself.”

He continued:

“The days of Government Ministers having blank cheque books and spending vast amounts of tax-payers money with little or no accountability are long over. Let’s not forget that the people of Ireland are already under huge pressure through numerous new taxes, such as the water charges, the property tax and proposed broadcasting charge. It would be wholly unjust if they had to foot the bill for unnecessary consultants too,” he concluded