Mr. John McCarthy:

The local government audit service would have a lead role in terms of identifying the purposes for value for money audits but there is an advisory committee which involves us and the local authority sector also. I have discussed this issue with the new director of audit during the past number of months and she is certainly very mindful of the importance of trying to ensure that the audit process is conducted in a more efficient way so that more resources are freed up in a very targeted way for a particular period of the year to support an enhanced value for money function. That is something we will be working on with the director of audit and her team over the next 12 months to put a more robust value for money programme in place.