John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am asking about the risk officer and the financial officer because other Departments do not have such officers. In fact, when we were reviewing spending with one particular Department, officials acknowledged that the absence of a risk officer to deal with risk management was a weakness within the Department. Separate to that, a further weakness was the absence of someone to deal with overall financial management because such qualifications were not generally found within the Department. It surprises me that there is not a risk manager, separate to the financial manager, given that the Department is dealing with a budget of €27 billion. The absence of such expertise is worrying, given the systems in place or rather, the lack of systems in place within the Department.