The European Court of Auditors has declined, for the 10th year in succession, to give the European Commission a clean bill of financial health, citing persistent errors affecting "the amount, the reality or the eligibility" of payments from the EU's €98.34 billion budget.

The Court of Auditors report for 2003, which was published in Strasbourg yesterday, showed that the Republic continues to benefit directly from EU membership, receiving two-and-a-half times as much from the EU budget as it contributes.

Ireland's member of the court, Ms Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, said the Commission had taken important steps towards changing its internal accounting culture but that more needed to be done.

"It has not changed as substantially as I'd have hoped but it has certainly changed," she said.

The report acknowledged that many problems in administering the EU's budget concern areas of shared responsibility between the Commission and national governments but insisted that better controls are needed.

"[ The] court has no reasonable assurance that the supervisory systems and controls of significant areas of the budget are effectively implemented," it said.

The Republic paid just over €1.1 billion into the EU budget in 2003 but received almost €2.7 billion, mostly through agricultural subsidies and structural funds directed towards poorer regions.

The report made few criticisms of the Republic, although it suggests the International Fund for Ireland's monitoring "could be improved".