Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

In the first instance, the Government will allocate a certain amount of funding. A total of €1.997 billion was agreed by the Oireachtas earlier this year. There will be supplementary amounts assigned for testing and tracing later on and, to the Deputy's point, a considerable amount will have to be deployed for next year. There are various controls in place. In the first instance, there are internal HSE controls and, as the Deputy and I support, the HSE will report to its board. There is oversight from the Department on an ongoing basis and then, as required, there can be individual reviews. For example, one of the amounts that has been sanctioned is €670 million for personal protective equipment, PPE. I have requested an audit of that to address exactly the point the Deputy made. The HSE has had to spend vast amounts of money in a short period of time.