Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

Go raibh maith agat. No. 1 is the accounts of the National Lottery Fund for 2024, which received a clear audit opinion. No. 2 is the Regulator of the National Lottery financial statements for 2024, which received a clear audit opinion. No. 3 is the account of the State property miscellaneous deposits account for 2024, which received a clear audit opinion.

No. 4 is the financial statements of St. James's Hospital for 2024, which received a clear audit opinion. The turnover figure there is incorrect. I will seek a correction in that regard for the committee. Apart from issuing a clear audit opinion, I drew attention to three matters. First, a material level of procurement non-compliance, which continues from year to year. Second, claims to the value of €396,000 were rejected by private insurers on the basis that the hospital had not finalised the claims within the required timeframe. Third, services to the value of €1.44 million were purchased from an unlimited company owned by employees of St. James' Hospital in circumstances where no formal contract was in place and for which most services were not subject to an open, competitive process. In addition, we identified that employees had not declared their interests in the company in annual declarations of interest. Both of the items there were replicated previously. I drew attention to similar issues with Children's Health Ireland, CHI, and in the HSE.