New allegations have emerged that the HSE has awarded some contracts to former staff, without a tendering process.

The claims are made in a comprehensive dossier sent to the Dáil's Public Accounts Committee.

The claims are understood to include cases where the HSE has paid former staff members for spaces in care homes, without first investigating whether better deals could be found elsewhere.

Committee chairman John McGuinness says some former HSE staff members have made huge money from unadvertised HSE contracts.

Fine Gael TD John Deasy says the claims are worrying. He added that "we need to find out the scale of this":

Daniel McConnell, Group Political Correspondent with Independent News, spoke to Lunchtime about the latest allegations:

Yesterday, the Health Minister downplayed a leaked report by the taxpayer's watchdog which claims HSE staff have been abusing expense claims.

The audit found that public funds were used to pay for five star hotels for HSE staff, and flights to New York for a personal guest. Calls are now being made for the money to be repaid.

Minister Leo Varadkar emphasised that the leaked report is just a draft, and said the HSE will now have to explain each item of expenditure to the Comptroller and Auditor General

Originally posted at 11.18am