Mr. Stephen Mulvany:

There is no direct correlation between the regional health areas, RHAs, that are being introduced and non-compliant procurement. We would not disagree with the CEO and the Comptroller and Auditor General's assessment in this regard. It is a requirement that we look at payments over €25,000, which is what we have done. We have not looked at payments below that, but there will be non-compliance in that as well. As the Comptroller and Auditor General rightly says, it is not a full picture but it is a picture which we could not provide a number of years ago. Now we can and we do it quarterly. There is local variation. We have put additional procurement compliance officers out into our hospitals and our CHOs with central co-ordination.