Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Local Government Reform Act 2014, introduced by the Taoiseach's own party in Government, established the National Oversight and Audit Commission, NOAC, as an independent statutory body, to provide oversight of the local government structure in Ireland. Its functions involve scrutiny of performance generally and financial performance specifically. On 17 January last, the chair of NOAC, Mr. Michael McCarthy, told the Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage:

NOAC does not have a function of providing input to the development of policy for the sector. Furthermore, NOAC has no role in decisions around funding models or levels of funding for local authorities. As prescribed in the Act, NOAC does not apply sanctions, penalties or fines or examine individual cases. Rather, our role is to act as an oversight body. Most of the work of NOAC is carried out through its four working groups. These deal with local government governance, efficiency and reform, performance indicators, communications and customer survey, and financial management and performance.

However, a former member of NOAC stated:

NOAC is a complete joke,as I served on the NOAC Board, it became patently clear that the body had been neutralised from the off through a pincer movement by the Department, who had an assistant-sec on the Commission, and the CCMA, that’s the County & City Managers Assoc, representing the County Managers, who ensured there was No probing, no accountability, and no consequences.

The Taoiseach will have read the recent media reports from RTÉ's Paul Cunningham about the misclassification of employees at Dublin City Council. It has now emerging that a €20 million hole in the Dublin City Council finances will ensue. This may never have come to light were it not for Paul Cunningham, but has clearly been going on for years. Is it not fair to say that the public can have no confidence that local authorities are managing their spend correctly? That spend amounts to €6 billion of taxpayers' money spread across the 31 local authorities annually.

That is €6 billion. The entire structure of the local authorities needs to be reviewed. With a €6 billion spend, the State can ill afford to take a haphazard approach to governance and accountability. Does the Taoiseach agree it is time the responsibility for auditing local authorities was brought under the remit of the Comptroller and Auditor General? Will he tell the House he will ensure action is taken to safeguard the taxpayers' moneys?

See this speech in context