Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

-----and, therefore, from a risk point of view, it would not be safe for the HSE to use it after that date, or to rely on it. It may still have some use but that is a scientific and a product standard issue. The same applies to things like masks, gowns and so on. They have expiry dates, which was a surprise to me as well. One would question how they can have an expiry date but they do and, therefore, projecting forward, the HSE does not envisage it can use the quantities it bought and still in stock at the year end, within the expiry time.