Full coverage: HSE

Analysis of more than €1.6 billion of HSE spending shows just one recruitment firm received €478 million in less than four years and ten others shared over €1 billion – for an unknown number of staff.

Tasked with digitally transforming the HSE, Martin Curley has resigned. He blames a lack of "will and skill" in the HSE's management and constant blockages of innovation. He no longer believes it is possible to fix the system from the inside.

Sloane Helicopters was undercut on costs by more than a quarter when tendering for a medical helicopter service for the southwest. But the UK provider has brought a High Court challenge claiming its rival's bid is "abnormally low".

The former chief executive of the HSE is following a now well-trodden path from the public to the private sector. EY, which provided services to the state during the pandemic, said details about which clients or what projects he will be involved with are not yet confirmed.

The HSE halted payments to the Mater Private amid concerns that it was being billed for hefty intercompany interest bills paid to a Luxembourg entity. The High Court has largely ruled in its favour.

The HSE has refused to pay €6.6 million in costs to the Mater Hospital Group under a national emergency Covid-19 deal in 2020, claiming the private equity owners of the group are engaged in profit extraction. The Mater group is arguing that it is too late to rewrite the bargain.

A Wicklow supply company claims it is €3.5 million out of pocket because the IDA induced the HSE to withdraw from a ventilator contract. The development authority has launched a full-blaze defence.

Ireland's agency for foreign direct investment is being blamed for the HSE's withdrawal from a contract to buy critical ventilators. The Irish medical supplies firm who lost out on the deal now wants the IDA to pay damages.

Having urgently signed a €7.5 million contract to buy ventilators on the night of the lockdown, the HSE cancelled the deal and allegedly sparked a garda investigation involving Interpol. Court proceedings followed but a recent ruling means the dispute will now continue behind closed doors.