Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

The key issue for the committee is perhaps around the accounting for moneys received from pharmaceutical and medical supply companies to individual hospitals in the HSE or the voluntary hospitals. The Department of Health determines the format and disclosures that are required in the financial statements so the Department is in the best position to give a view on those governance matters. It is a bigger thing to make an allegation of bias as a result of that because there are identifiable doctors on a website mentioned in the article who receive funding. It could be in the form of sponsorship for events, research funding and so on. It would be impossible to conclude that every doctor who receives such funding would be compromised or that it would have negatively affected their prescribing. There are professional standards regulators who would be better equipped to address that aspect. The issue from the committee's point of view is around how this funding is accounted for and how transparent it is in the financial statements.