Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

The turnover on the account is quite sizeable because it represents, effectively, State pensions that are payable to persons in care, that are paid into the account, and then a deduction is made for their upkeep leaving them with a certain amount of their own funding. The bulk of the funding is managed through a central account operated by the HSE but there are accounts separately, if one likes. They refer to it sometimes as pocket money accounts in the individual care centres and there are very many of those, possibly 100 or so care centres, where there are separate accounts. In fact, for these particular financial statements, this is the first time the HSE has included a specific statement on internal financial control. We did quite a considerable amount of additional work there to look at the controls. The controls are being tightened up. It is something perhaps that the committee might wish to examine at some point.