Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

First we have the Intestate Estates Fund account for 2024. I issued a clear audit opinion in relation to that account. I should point out that the figure of €3.2 million is the balance in the fund at the end of 2024.

No. 2 is the accounts, the financial statements, of the Office of the Planning Regulator for 2024. Those received a clear audit opinion.

No. 3 is the financial statements of the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland for 2024. They received a clear audit opinion. However, I drew attention to two matters disclosed in the statement on internal control relating to the SBCI's administration of certain credit guarantee schemes that it operates on an agency basis on behalf of the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment. First, there were errors in the collection of credit guarantee premium payments between 2012 and 2024, which resulted in a total of €500,000 under-collected from borrowers, of which an estimated €300,000 is assessed as not recoverable. The second issue was 206 loans with an estimated aggregate value of €12.6 million which were guaranteed under the Ukrainian credit guarantee scheme where the loans may not have met the core criterion specified for the scheme.

No. 4 is the accounts of the Residential Tenancies Board for 2024. These received a clear audit opinion. However, in that case I drew attention to a material level of procurement non-compliance and also to the waiving of statutory late annual registration penalties and reimbursement to landlords of penalties collected totalling €1.23 million up to March 2024. There was a similar reimbursement of €1.67 million in 2023. These were not compliant with the legislation. The difficulty arose from the new ICT system that it put in place, which created difficulties for landlords in making the returns. They were automatically levied with these penalties through no fault of their own in many cases. The RTB decided, even though the law does not provide for it, that it was only fair that it would return the levies. The matter has been rectified from March 2024. The penalties are being applied.