Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 26 November 2015

Public Accounts Committee

Bord na gCon Financial Statements 2014

10:00 am

Photo of Seán FlemingSeán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We are in a difficult situation because a large proportion of the IGB’s income is taxpayers’ money. There was a time some years ago when the taxpayers’ contribution was 20% or 30% of the board’s income. It is now heading towards 50%. The IGB is not a commercial organisation and could not exist without a taxpayer subvention of €14 million next year. We will take it that it is taxpayers’ money that is being paid out in these cases.

Whatever confidential agreement the IGB has entered into, it will not overcome the need to record this and have it disclosed so that the readers of the 2015 accounts will know. The Committee of Public Accounts will not tolerate a large six-figure sum being buried in the accounts without it being disclosed. While on the one hand the board might have a legal agreement on confidentiality, the board members have a separate legal and fiduciary duty when signing off on the accounts next year to ensure they are in compliance with the law. The legal agreement is one issue, while the fiduciary duty as a director is another. The board members will not be able to get away from including major settlement figures in the accounts. The reason I am raising this is because it is referred to in the 2014 accounts. This is germane to the accounts in front of us today. The issue involved predates 2014. It has been rumbling along for five years and relates to a race in 2010. Do the witnesses get the point I am making?

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