Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

My understanding is that the office has been significantly under resourced, so for example, it did not have any forensic accountants.

It plays a critical role and I have always been very impressed by the professionalism of the office whenever I have dealt with it. We have a culture whereby white collar crime tends to go unnoticed and undetected. The ODCE is a critical part of the State infrastructure, yet funding for it is actually falling, albeit by a small amount. However, it must be asked if the amount of funding that is provided for under the subhead is sufficient for the ODCE to scale up to meet the funding requirements of the forensic accountants and all the other technical skill sets that I am told that it did not have two years ago. Perhaps it has them now. It must also be asked if the ODCE has sufficient funding to fully resource the office to do the job that needs to be done in the coming years.

Chairman, should I ask questions singly or a number of them together?