€7m Spent On HSE Rents

The Health Service Executive has spent over €7m renting premises in three counties in the last two years, it has been revealed.

Fine Gael's John O'Mahony obtained the information after tabling a parliamentary question to the department.

The deputy found that in 2008 the HSE spent had over €3.6m on renting premises in Galway, Mayo and Roscommon, up from €3.5m in 2007.


"This is dead money that could be easily used to provide better service to patients in these counties," he said.

"While, of course, some money has to be allocated for rental, spending €7,142,237.84 in just two years on this type of expenditure cannot be justified."

Earlier this year, Mr O'Mahony revealed the government spent €560,000 renting prefabs in one year alone in Mayo.

"This is further proof that the HSE and the Fianna Fáil government does not seem concerned with getting value for money for the taxpayer or allocating scarce Exchequer funds in a way that maximises benefits for citizens," he said.

(PR/KMcA)