Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman and welcome our guests. I thank the Comptroller and Auditor General and in particular Ms Devlin for her work. I also thank Mr. Watt for his opening remarks. I am slightly puzzled that the code of practice for the governance of State bodies, which was published in August 2016, is not yet available to me as far as I am aware. We are now eight years on from the financial collapse and the knock-on effects in terms of public service numbers. Given the discrepancies between severance arrangements across the public sector, I find it a little puzzling that in this climate such a document is only being put together now. Perhaps Mr. Watt can address that at a later stage.

I am conscious I have 20 minutes, if I am not mistaken, and therefore I will try to be as efficient as possible if Mr. Watt could be as well. I would appreciate that.