Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

On the issue of the pooling of funding, my view would be that if there is a single fund and public resources go into it, then any application of that funding is an application of public funding, obviously on a pro rata basis. An alternative would be that where funds are given, the State sector could, if it had a particular concern that money should go to a particular resource, restrict the handling of the funding so that it goes into a particular fund and is accounted for separately and transparently in the financial statements. This is something different in terms of the inspection rights that I have. I have power under section 8 of the 1993 Act to carry out an inspection in a publicly funded body to ascertain exactly that the money has been used for the purposes intended but that is restricted to a situation where more than 50% of the income of the entity in the particular year comes from public sources.

There is a different model for national audit offices in other jurisdictions, which is that one follows the money and once the grant is given, the auditor has the right to go in and examine and see that the money was applied for the purposes intended. In terms of the grant agreement and the specification of what money is to be used for, it is possible for the HSE's internal audit - I think this is what the HSE has incorporated into the grant agreements - to follow the money and go into an organisation. If an organisation is taking the money, it has to let the HSE in to see. There are, therefore, other responses that might be put in place in the longer term.