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

Again, I am not answering for the Comptroller and Auditor General, but I just want to move it on, if I can. The Comptroller and Auditor General (Amendment) Act 1993 deals with the remit of the Comptroller and Auditor General. In this particular instance, neither the Comptroller and Auditor General nor, by extension, the PAC has any responsibility or any remit in regard to IBRC. While the company may or may not have been in State ownership at some stage or other during the process, it is the case that, for example, AIB is in State ownership but we do not have it before us. What we need to do is focus on what was suggested by the Taoiseach yesterday and the comment Mr. McCarthy has added to that this morning, namely, that if the PAC or the Comptroller and Auditor General were to look at this, it would require legislation. In the context of that legislation, I am taking from members that we would take the opportunity to look at the remit of the committee and have an input to the legislation.

Second, what is within our remit is the Department of Finance and its officials. We have already agreed to ask for the paperwork in regard to their concerns and the entities they were concerned about so we can examine them. They are due before us on 17 May and it is possible that if we flag it for them, we can deal with the issues generally from the Department's perspective. However, we do not have a role in regard to private companies, and that has to be made clear. We have a number of suggestions here that the members are agreeable on, and I will ask the clerk to act on each one of them today.