Mr. Tony O'Brien:

Can I offer an additional piece of information on the internal audit process? It is not directly related to Deputy Rock's question but I think it is an area that will be of interest to the Deputy because there was some discussion earlier about the role of the HSE's audit committee. For clarity, documentation was sent on request to the committee yesterday that had certain information that is not really reflected in the discussions that we are having today.

The audit committee was briefed in relation to this audit on two occasions - once at the end of last year and once at the beginning of this year. The audit committee has a cyclical approach to its meetings, not unlike the Committee of Public Accounts in some respects. Consequently, once an internal audit has been completed, in this case on an external party, and then goes to the relevant national director for action, once that period has been completed, the internal audit committee looks to see if the HSE has dealt with the issue in an effective way and what are the lessons. An inference was being drawn that in some way there ought to have been an emergency meeting of the audit committee. The audit committee does not have an executive function. It is very similar to other audit committees in the public sector and if the committee is in any doubt, it may be helpful for the Comptroller and Auditor General to speak to this issue as well.