Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

There is something that is recurrent and that I point out in the audit certificate. It is in relation to an obligation on every public body to review the effectiveness of its controls every year. This is stipulated in the code of practice of the governance of State bodies. The requirement is that that review be carried out usually by the board of the body so that it is satisfied in a timely way that it has looked at the controls and that the controls are operating.

We draw attention to a situation where that review does not occur. One sees that more regularly than may be satisfactory. That is the formula. If members look at the Railway Safety Commission, the review of effectiveness in 2014 of the system of internal financial control was only undertaken in September 2015, nine months after the year-end. The problem is that if at that stage it identifies a control weakness, it is too late to do anything for 2015. It needs to be done early and it needs to be done at the highest level of the organisation.