Only a third of proposed primary care centres have been completed and the rest could take up to 20 years to open at the current rate of completion.

The head of the department with primary responsibility for the Public Services Card project has agreed that it would have been “preferable” if a full business case had been prepared for it at its inception.

PAC chair Sean Fleming ordered the trawl after confirmation that Bord na gCon spent €633,000 on consultants and amid queries about the use of taxpayer money.

After confirmation that Bord na gCon spent €227,000 on consultants and amid queries about the use of taxpayer money, PAC chairman Sean Fleming ordered that all agencies and departments be asked for details.

The Government has been urged to explain exactly how it spent more than €3bn worth of carbon tax income over the past decade amid fears that this year's €6 carbon tax budget hike will fail to be spent on climate matters.

The Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection cannot say how much the 10-year Public Services Card project has cost to date.

The escrow account in which the €14bn Apple fines are being held is set to lose €70m this year because of negative interest rates, the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) has warned.

The Dail's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is demanding answers from NUI Maynooth over the decision to write-off a €750,000 loan to a failed subsidiary company.

The new boss of the HSE has said it will break even this year despite it having a €103 million deficit at the end of March.

Nama developers have been able to buy back billions of euro worth of loans at massive discounts because of a major flaw in the laws which set the bad bank up a decade ago.

The reassurances on Nama made by the late Brian Lenihan a decade ago were a puff of smoke, writes Political Editor, Daniel McConnell.

A major flaw in the laws prohibiting the resale of properties taken over by NAMA to the developers behind them has emerged.

The Government has been accused of trying to spin the HSE’s funding crisis by “massaging” official figures, after it emerged that the Department of Health ordered senior managers to keep a €198m debt off its books last year.

The Dáil's public accounts committee has agreed to take the step after discussions between it, Cork Institute of Technology, the University of Limerick and Waterford Institute of Technology.

Irish Water could be forced to fully open its books to the public.

The country’s top official for public expenditure has been sharply criticised for snubbing a request to appear before the Oireachtas Health Committee which is investigating cost overruns at the National Children’s Hospital.

Michael Clifford Taxpayers will probably foot the bill for ‘campaign of calumny’ against Maurice McCabe, writes Michael Clifford.

Government departments and bodies are paying money for nothing in a scandalous waste of public cash.

WHAT a bun fight it has turned out to be.

A review of policies on pay and other benefits for third-level college staff is about to begin, almost a year after it was due to commence.

The cost of Michael D Higgins’ presidential term is set to be examined by an Oireachtas committee next week despite fears that the investigation will damage the integrity of the presidential election.

The cybersecurity of all taxpayer-funded bodies is set to be investigated after a foundation used to raise donor funds for Trinity College lost almost €1m when it was targeted by fraudsters in an online scam.

Trinity College Dublin is still trying to recover almost €1m lost to a computer fraud at its fundraising wing last year.

The Government’s €200m back-dated salary deal with thousands of hospital consultants will not have any knock-on benefits for lower paid public servants, a senior minister has claimed.

Paul Reynolds wasn’t fed any scurrilous stuff about Sergeant Maurice McCabe, he told the Disclosures Tribunal yesterday, writes Michael Clifford.

Former Garda commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan has said she never sought to influence RTÉ coverage of the O’Higgins report into complaints from whistleblower Sgt Maurice McCabe, adding: “I have no idea how anybody could come to that conclusion.”

These are strange days indeed for An Garda Síochána, and things got a little stranger yesterday in Dublin Castle.

The State’s financial watchdog has said former Garda commissioner Martin Callinan made comments about Sergeant Maurice McCabe along the lines that he was “not to be trusted” and had questions to answer over alleged “sexual offences”.

There was a time, not so long ago, when the kind of evidence heard at the Disclosures Tribunal over the last week would have caused shock and outrage.

As Maurice McCabe enters the witness box at the Disclosures Tribunal, will another series of errors be given as explanation for him appearing to be under attack, asks Michael Clifford

The state watchdog which monitors fish catches is repaying €730,000 in overpaid salaries according to a newly published report, which also shows more than 3,500 checks and inspections were conducted.

A fraud or theft in relation to procurement at Mid-West training centres might have cost an education and training board €150,000.

More than €2.8m in overpayments of grants for college students were outstanding at the end of 2016.

Public workers were overpaid almost €16m by Government departments and State agencies last year — over three times more than initially claimed.

A new cross-departmental government salary system intended to save the State money has overpaid salaries by more than €4m since it was established.

Kerry Education and Training Board spent at least €1m on goods and services without fully following rules around procurement in 2016.

Ireland is losing out on billions of euro every year because eight of the 100 most lucrative Irish-based multinationals pay no corporation tax and five more have a tax bill of less than 1%.

Ireland is losing out on billions of euro every year because eight of the 100 most lucrative Irish-based multinationals pay no corporation tax and five more have a tax bill of less than 1%.

Eight of the 100 highest earning Irish-based multi-nationals are paying no corporation tax whatsoever, five have a tax bill of less than 1% and others are effectively being paid by the taxman because of serious loopholes in the tax system.

Severe financial oversight deficits at the National College of Art & Design have been highlighted in its latest accounts — that are already more than three years old.

Kildare and Wicklow Education and Training Board (KWETB) says it has co-operated fully with inquiries to date around procurement and other issues that are now subject to a ministerial-appointed investigation.

One third of 9,500 claims are for clinical negligence at cost of €1.88bn