Beaumont Hospital apologises for 'governance failures' amid €6.2m spend on firm run by its own staff
Chief executive of Beaumont Hospital Anne Coyle arriving at the Public Accounts Committee hearing on Thursday morning. Picture: Sam Boal/Collins
One of the country’s largest training hospitals has apologised “unreservedly” for its governance failures, but insisted €6.2 million spent on radiology services from a company governed by its own staff was “value for money”.
The chief executive of Beaumont Hospital on Dublin’s northside told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) the €6.2 million was to serve “patient need”.
The company in question had 20 of Beaumont’s own staff as directors, while only four of those had made declarations of that potential conflict of interest in their statement of interests in 2024, the Irish Examiner reports.
Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) Seamus McCarthy had outlined to the committee €1.5 million had been spent on the company in 2024.
Chief executive Anne Coyle, who had offered an “unreserved apology” to the PAC for the “historic control issues” outlined in the hospital’s 2024 accounts, acknowledged under questioning the expenditure on the radiology vendor had been €6.2 million, and none of that spending had been subject to a public competition.
She also acknowledged no additional statements of interest regarding the firm had since been received by the remaining 16 Beaumont staff members, also on its board.
Asked by Fine Gael’s James Geoghegan what she was apologising for if she believed the €6.2 million expenditure had been justified, Coyle replied “governance failures”.
Beaumont incurred €17.9 million in such non-compliant procurement in 2024, one of several issues highlighted by McCarthy in his address to the committee.
