Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I echo what Senator Bacik has said. This is the last Order of Business in this term. I thank the Leader, the Deputy Leader and leaders of all of the groups for their courtesy, efficiency and thoroughness with which they conducted the business of the House. We are very proud of this House and acknowledge the debt owed to its Leader. I thank the Cathaoirleach, as always, and his staff for the way proceedings have been conducted. Also, in the realm of thanks, I thank Senator Conway for the motion he tabled yesterday and the recent one on the environment. They demonstrated that there is great spirit on the Government benches in terms of raising important issues and adding to the status of the House.
I wish to express concern about the compellability of witnesses. The ruling, I gather, is that the accounts of the body concerned must be audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General. That is a most important post in the Constitution and people like Arthur Griffith and Eamon de Valera saw the necessity to have a watchdog for public expenditure.
My question arises from a matter raised frequently and eloquently by Senator Colm Burke in the House - section 38 bodies. If the Committee of Public Accounts cannot compel these people to appear - which appears to be the ruling - we must adopt as a rule of thumb that they will not receive money if they will not talk. There must be some quid pro quo if one gets public money but decides not to talk about it afterwards before the Oireachtas. I know the Minister for Finance and his new Minister of State, Deputy Harris, will be here later. I suggest we adopt that stance as a working rule. If a body seeks an exemption and is not going to answer for how it spends money then we cannot give out funding. The House must have a Committee of Public Accounts and a Comptroller and Auditor General auditing how we spend money which is a major issue in the country. Go raibh maith agat.