Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

In the health sector, No. 18, the Irish Blood Transfusion Service's financial statements for 2024, received a clear audit opinion.

No. 19, the Mental Health Commission's financial statements for 2024, received a qualified audit opinion. As I have explained previously, accounts for many health bodies are presented and they give a true and fair view except that they account for the costs of retirement benefit entitlements only as they become payable and not as they accrue. It is a standard approach for many bodies in the health service.

No. 20, the financial statements from the hepatitis C and HIV compensation tribunal special account, received a clear audit opinion, and No. 21, the financial statements for the related hepatitis C and HIV compensation tribunal reparation fund for 2024, also received a clear audit opinion.

No. 22 relates to the financial statements for the Health Service Executive for 2024. These received a clear audit opinion. However, I drew attention to a number of matters that were noted in the course of the audit. First, I drew attention to the writing off of €33.8 million of expired personal protective equipment, PPE, and vaccines. I have drawn attention to this matter over a number of years. The amounts involved are substantial. Second, I drew attention to costs of €2.1 million incurred in 2024 for the storage of obsolete PPE. Some of the latter has been in storage for a number of years. I drew attention to delays in submitting patient charge claims to insurers resulting in estimated losses of €4.1 million in 2024. The committee may recall that I drew attention to a similar matter in relation to Children's Health Ireland and I think it may have happened in a number of other hospitals as well. I also drew attention to a continuing material level of procurement non-compliance. It is difficult to get a precise figure as to the level, but it is significant. There is a detailed presentation on it in the statement of internal financial control. I drew attention to unquantified losses due to weak controls over a non-competitively procured supply of equipment at a cost of €15 million from 2020 to 2024, including a duplicate payment of €723,000 which has not yet been recovered. While the overall expenditure was €15 million, the systems in place in the HSE did not allow it to know how much product it actually got for that sum or how much of it was used.

Again, there is more detail in the statement of internal financial control.

I also drew attention to weak controls in respect of clinical services provided through HSE employees' companies, including the non-declaration of interests to the HSE in relation to the matter. Again, this is something the committee has spoken about previously in respect of various hospitals. I drew attention to the fact that less than three quarters of the €7.7 billion in grant funding issued to outside agencies was covered by a completed funding agreement by the end of December 2024. That is a key control whereby there is an agreement between the HSE and the funded body as to what they will deliver for the money they are being provided. The coverage has been slipping and it has been getting later and later in the year of account. Finally, I drew attention to weaknesses in controls over fixed assets, including a write-off of the remaining value of an asset that cost €1.4 million to put in place but that was never used.