The Dáil bicycle shed is only the tip of the iceberg. If you thought that the €333,000 spend was bad, take a look at how consultancy firms are ripping off the hard-pressed HSE.
Over the past eight years, the HSE has given half a billion to consultancy firms for advice on managerial bullshit.
‘Project management’, ‘governance’ ‘financial analysis’ are just some of the tenders they paid millions for. The HSE have forgotten that they are a health service – not a gravy train for big corporations.
The main beneficiaries are the big accountancy firms. They no longer just check the books but engage in ‘consultancy’.
The highest earner was Ernst and Young, who were paid a total of €33.5 million by the HSE in 2023. The next highest earner was PwC (€15.8 million) followed by Deloitte (€4.2 million); Grant Thornton (€2 million); KPMG (€1.6 million) and PA Consulting (€1.47 million).
And these are probably underestimates as they only count contracts worth more than €100,000. This is a much bigger scandal than the bicycle shed – and that was bad enough.
The public sector is seen as a cash cow for private capitalists who want ‘risk-free’ profits.
We should ban all contracts with these firms. If the HSE needs advice go in-house – or hire researchers from Ireland’s third levels sector.
We don’t need neoliberal ‘experts’ who always give the same advice – privatise, outsource so you can pay us even more.
