John Halligan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputies for the amendments, but I do not propose to accept them. Deputies Bríd Smith and Richard Boyd Barrett propose to specify in the Bill a number of additional reporting requirements. Section 18(2) provides that the annual report of the Comptroller and Auditor General on activities under the KDB certification scheme will include information on such matters as the Minister may direct. In addition, section 18(4)(h) provides for a wide-ranging and catch-all provision which permits the Minister to request the inclusion of such other statistical information as he or she prescribes. I am satisfied that the combination of these two catch-all provisions neatly provides a sound basis for the Minister to request the inclusion in the annual report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of statistical information in a format he or she may decide.

For example, this could include the type of information that the Deputies have an interest in such as statistics on the breakdown of the knowledge development box, KDB, applications on a geographical or sectoral basis. I refer here to any part of the State. It has the benefit of providing the Minister with the ability to seek statistical information on whatever basis he or she sees fit. I believe there is an inherent danger in being overly prescriptive in legislation. Good legislation would provide a sound basis for ensuring that the Minister gets the information he or she wants at a particular point in time and at any time, rather than adopting an overly prescriptive approach in the content of the actual KDB report. In my view it should be allowed to evolve in response to emerging developments and to be able to respond to new requirements. The Bill provides a sound basis for this. I assure Deputies that it has been the practice of the Comptroller and Auditor General, in this annual report on the activities of the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General, to provide a very rich account of activities and to include statistics, county by county. This is in line with providing good customer service where flexibility is a key response to changing requirements. In other words, throughout all of this the Minister and his Department can intervene, can continuously get reports on how this scheme is operating and can make interventions based on the information he or she will require, for the benefit of the taxpayer and to ensure all the points made by Deputy Boyd-Barrett are adhered to and that there is no abuse of the scheme. It would be a folly on any Minister not to do that and have these measures in place. I know the Deputy opposes the Bill in its entirety but this was specifically put in to address the points raised by the Deputy. What would we do otherwise; do we set up a forum or a committee? We must have some faith in the Comptroller and Auditor General. All of this still comes back to the Minister's office which, at any stage, has the right to check and go through the process county by county if needed to see that legislation is being adhered to. If I was sitting in opposition I would look at this as being very reasonable.