David Cullinane made the comments at the Dail's Covid Committee as he criticised the department's failure to carry out a cost-benefit analysis on the deal with private hospitals.
The Sinn Fein TD says on many occasions, prior to COVID, the need for more hospital beds was pointed out.
He said "the very fact that you have to go to private hospitals is testimony to the fact that we did not have capactiy in the public system. If you are negotiating a deal and you are
coming up with a price, because I worked in the car sales industry at one point, and I can tell you I would love to see people like you coming through the door when I was selling a
used car because what I am trying to establish from you is, in negotiating that price, surely you would have had an estimated cost of what a bed costs in a public hospital as
opposed to what the cost was going to be in terms of this deal for private hospitals."
Deputy Cullinane says he knows what is transparent, what should be accountable and what is value for money.
"That a cost benefit anaylsis is important, having the fundamentals of a deal properly examined is important and it does not strike me on this occasion that this happened.
The fact is this deal cost 300 million euro and less than half of the capacity was used."
