Mr. Finbarr Kelly:

The Fishery Harbour Centres Act 1968. I am making this comment because this is the research I did before I came to the hearing. I look after the agriculture Vote in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. For instance, if BIM produces an annual report, it is normally transmitted by the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to the Government. That is the mechanism by which somebody in my situation will look at the annual report and accounts and just see, for instance, if there was a qualified opinion by the Comptroller and Auditor General. That would be a matter of profound and serious concern to us but, in this case, the Act does not provide at all that the reports of the fishery harbour centres should go to Government and, therefore, the reports would not have come to me or my Department and would not have been circulated to Ministers for comment. The Chairman is looking for an explanation as to why they did not come to attention in the normal course.

As far as I am aware, these reports have not come to us on an annual basis. I checked that with my colleagues before coming here. It did not come to us until Mr. Harkness wrote specifically.