Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

The Deputy may recall that at a meeting of the committee last year the assistant director of internal audit of the HSE flagged that it was carrying out this work and that it was specifically focused on the section 38 bodies. We were aware that this work was ongoing and that it had put a lot of resources into it. We did not take it any further pending sight of the results of the work. What we did in regard to the bodies we audit ourselves was that we examined the issue of additional allowances. We have issued audit queries to three of the four I mentioned. We have had replies from some but one is still to be completed. Obviously, in light of the hearings here, I will consider whether it would be useful to produce an additional report, but it may be that matters will have been adequately dealt with.