PAC | Business Post

€8m ‘unrecoverable’ after HSE bought ventilators with no business case

An in-depth report found the health organisation placed orders for 10 times the number of ventilators it needed

'Golden visas' for foreign investors could be suspended after Monaghan hotel shuts

Officials are worried about a surge in the number of Chinese applicants to the initiative

‘No financial allocation’ for e-health means system to be paper-based until 2025

TDs told high cost of rolling out electronic health records means HSE does not have an approved business case

National Lottery rang almost 1,000 customers to warn them about their spending

Despite the relatively high number of people contacted, just a fraction of players were excluded from playing

Children’s hospital cost to rise again with extra €54m needed to cover inflation

Figures show the cost of the controversial project is still spiralling, with fears the eventual bill could reach €2 billion

New children's hospital bill to rise further as builder files €90m additional cost claims

Some €481 million worth of costs are still in dispute between the hospital and the main contractor amid criticism of the spiralling price of the project

State spends €517m on public inquiries since 1997

The cost of tribunals and commissions of investigation has totalled more than half a billion euro in the last 25 years

Revenue worried about ‘growing trend’ of businesses trading cash-only

Politicians to hear Revenue has noticed an uptick in off-books payments and as it attempts to clamp down on tax avoidance and evasion

Higher Education

UCD broke spending rules with outlay of €4.6m last year

More than 60 contracts awarded by the university did not comply with rules set down in the public spending code

Climate & Environment

Cleaning hazardous landfills to cost further €170m

Hundreds of sites yet to be remediated 15 years after the EU censured Ireland over illegal dumping

Children’s Hospital site targeted 29 times in arson attacks amid ongoing Garda investigation

National Paediatric Hospital Development Board expresses ‘grave concern’ over attacks taking place at the site

Spending watchdog seeks powers to compel Limerick university to show key report on €8m site purchase

Public Accounts Committee said it needed ‘power of direction’ set down in legislation to force UL to release the tightly held KPMG report

New recordings: The ‘car crash’ Covid spending that was ‘as big a sin as it gets’

The HSE was unable to explain why it committed to spending €770 million on personal protective equipment when it had only been given sanction to spend €205 million

‘Low risk’ of major roads projects being abandoned due to inflation

‘No projects presently under construction’ will be abandoned, Transport Infrastructure Ireland tells Public Accounts Committee

Doubts over University of Limerick’s new city centre campus due to funding shortfall

New documents seen by the Business Post show the government was warned just 300 students could be educated at the former Dunnes site instead of the planned 4,000 without an €87m government grant

National Broadband Plan failing to deliver value for money for taxpayer, report to say

Damning report from Public Accounts Committee to criticise several areas of NBP rollout

Tony O’Brien: PAC’s mistreatment of those before it damages its own standing

The disrespect and haranguing of officials and the wasting of time on constituency matters is a problem the Public Accounts Committee and the Dáil must address

University of Limerick got legal threat over report into €8m site purchase

University says it is unable to publish KPMG report into acquisition of Dunnes site until threat is ‘reviewed’

Gardaí broke spending rules with €4m outlay on clothes, shoes and PPE

Force awarded 44 contracts in 2020 without a competitive tendering process

State withheld capital grant from Limerick university amid concerns over €8m site purchase

Department paused payment of €2.5m grant to UL after it was heavily scrutinised for the acquisition of a former Dunnes Stores site in 2019