Mr. Robert Watt:

Our clear preference is that we do not sign confidentiality agreements, that it is public money and if we have to get into a situation of severance arrangements from a discretionary, as opposed to a formal, scheme we believe the details need to be made known publicly, that people need to know. As the Comptroller and Auditor General has set out in the report, the details are there and the public can see the value of the total award, not the total cash payment because most of the value is early pensions and added years as opposed to an upfront payment. That has been our longstanding view and we set that out in the code of practice where we made it very clear that for payments above €10,000 bodies should include that material in their annual accounts and in the appropriation accounts and for the 2015 appropriation accounts we have that line where we include those payments that are material.

This is not the practice in all countries. Some countries take the view that it is possible to get a better deal for the State in difficult employment circumstances if the details are kept confidential. Our view is that the imperative that the taxpayer needs to see how the money is being spent overrides those considerations but that is not the view elsewhere. For example, in the United Kingdom, UK, permanent secretaries, human resources managers, legal people in Departments can negotiate, reach severance deals with people and keep those amounts confidential. They have to produce aggregate figures for Departments or agencies but they do not give the individual amounts. I think that is being reconsidered.

There is a debate but our view is that the imperative of this committee, of the Comptroller and Auditor General and the taxpayer overrides any other considerations. The debate in the UK is that the value of the payments and the severance arrangements is lower and the time it takes for somebody to exit is faster and there is less trouble for the organisation if a confidential deal can be done. There is a trade-off but for the moment we have set out a clear view. We can debate the rights and wrongs of this but it is not absolutely clear cut.