Mr. Robert Watt:

I have a few comments. On the Comptroller and Auditor General, local government and the relationship between the Comptroller and Auditor General and the local government auditor, I have expressed my views in the past that our Department has an open mind about whether both should be amalgamated. I have stated this previously and I believe the Chairman and I are in broad agreement here. Certainly, our Department would be supportive of that and have been in the past. We know the Comptroller and Auditor General and this process have a strong impact in terms of value for money and ensuring that Departments account for money and are called to account before this committee. This is very powerful and if we believe this could have an impact on local government expenditure, we certainly would not object to that. I have supported it in the past and my view has not changed in this regard.

The Chairman raised some issues about responding to recommendations of reports. He will remember that when our Department was established in 2011, one issue about which he approached me was that it took a great deal of time for us to respond to the recommendations in minutes of reports. We have put great effort into ensuring we respond promptly and I think - Mr. Dermot Nolan can confirm - we now respond within 11 or 12 weeks. We also put pressure on Departments to respond and while the Comptroller and Auditor General might confirm this, we put a lot of effort into this and there have been improvements in the timeliness of the response. As for the wards of court report, I believe it arrived in our Department last week. I had a chance to look at it last night and we will review it. Inasmuch as it relates to our work, we will revert to the committee on that. As we literally only received it last week, we have not had a chance to consider it in detail. We will come back to the committee and will provide members with a view when we have had a chance to consider it.