HSE pays Mayo taxi companies over €500,000

HSE pays Mayo taxis €500,000

System branded ‘a farce’ as one company receives €300,000

Rowan Gallagher

THREE Mayo taxi firms last year received €527,186 in total from the HSE West for services without having to tender for the work against other companies.
TMG Passenger (SF Cabs) based in Swinford received the highest amount with €295,998, Sean T McCann of Charlestown received €125,374 and Moran’s Minibus, Castlebar, received €105,814
Michael Kilcoyne, Independent Castlebar Town and County Councillor slammed the HSE stating that the competence of the managers in these areas needs to be questioned.
“It is like everything with the HSE, the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing. It makes a farce of the government and EU guidelines.
“Any expenditure over €50,000 needs to go to tender, they ignore things that don’t suit them and it raises the issues of the competency of the managers with responsibility in these areas,” Cllr Kilcoyne concluded.
Fine Gael Spokesperson on Social Protection, Deputy Michael Ring, told The Mayo News that the taxi service for the HSE West was something he had supported strongly, making sure that people on low incomes are provided with transport in areas where there is no suitable public transport.
“I believe that Government contracts, whether it be for local authorities, the HSE or state agency should all be put out to public tender. Everybody should have an opportunity to tender for this work. The HSE have done everything in their power to get rid of the taxi scheme. I hope this is one of the schemes that will be saved in light of the cutbacks within the HSE which are to come,” Mr Ring concluded.
The HSE has confirmed that it did not put the work out to tender due to an internal HSE review of patient transport services conducted in 2008.
Taxi contracts for Galway, Mayo and Roscommon were put out to tender in October 2001 with an expiry four years after in 2005, after which no taxi tender process was undertaken.
HSE West has confirmed that it paid taxi companies €3.7m last year across nine counties stretching from Donegal to Limerick with the Swinford company receiving the highest percentage.
In relation to the criteria for the hiring of taxis and hackneys a HSE spokesperson told The Mayo News the following; “the Ambulance Service of the HSE has a process system in place whereby Taxi/Hackney companies who are registered with the Commission for Taxi Regulation and who are interested in providing car hire transport to HSE patients attending clinics and other HSE facilities can apply to go on a panel of providers.
“When all of the information is obtained and verified, the company is placed on the current list of Taxi/Hackney companies that are available to convey patients to their hospital appointments. Work is allocated to the companies on the basis of cost and availability. Taxi/Hackney companies successfully selected, having met the appropriate criteria, are used until such time as another agreement/contract is put in place.”