Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

Yes, I have. Oversight of sections 38 and 39 bodies is something that is examined every year. I drew the committee’s attention previously to the statement on internal financial control in the HSE, which is quite extensive, and it deals every year now with the development of its processes for oversight. Every year there is a report on it that the committee is free to examine as it wishes. It is at a process level though, rather than at the level of individual entities. Where there are significant failures those should be noted in the statement on internal financial control and one would expect to see in the 2016 financial statements an explanation from the HSE as to what control changes it is making, given the lapses that have occurred in individual charities or voluntary bodies.

The committee has a framework at any stage to bring the HSE in to give it an update. Undoubtedly, it is a very significant line of expenditure of the order of €2.5 billion to €3 billion a year in transfers to sections 38 and 39 organisations.