John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am speaking about accountability through a particular office for the spending of a particular amount of money which is quite large. I use the school transport system as an example, but there are others. I have said privately to the Minister that the provision in the legislation which empowers the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General to examine the spending of taxpayers money, down to the point where it is spent, should be applied across all Departments. That would certainly bring about greater accountability and provide for greater and easier access by parliamentarians to accounts. It is similar to the point I have often made about local government. While there is a local government audit section, when does one ever see its work played out publicly? That does not happen. I know that each local authority is empowered to do so, but it does not happen in the same way that it would happen in the case of Parliament. The point I am making is that in local government auditing involves an examination of moneys collected through rates and so on. What we need is an examination of moneys allocated by central government, which figure at one stage was in the region of €4 billion per annum but which has since reduced to approximately €2 billion.

Who will service in the public service pay commission and will there be outsiders involved?