Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

To return to the audit, I want to develop further the tax numbers that were there in the college and focus on the tax numbers that are exclusively the responsibility of An Garda Síochána that we cannot pass off to a board of directors. We are talking about the bar and the restaurant, the two bigger ones I would think. In the audit report, Mr. Kelly pointed out that the last set of accounts was 2009 and he mentioned that the independent accountant had audited them. On page 25 of the interim report, it states that Mr. Kelly had discussions with the accountant regarding what qualification means and whether the accountant had any suspicion regarding possible misappropriation of money. Mr. Kelly also noted that the control and record keeping was inadequate in terms of stock control and poor management. He met with the accountant regarding further investigation he had done on the preliminary work on these accounts and he was reluctant to give an audit opinion from 2010 onward.

From 1 January 2014, Mr. Kelly was talking to the restaurant manager. A small sample of transactions was audited in that case, including wage slips for work in the bar, a lodgement, a number of payments to suppliers, lodgements that were verified by lodgement slips, till receipts, etc. Controls were noted to be weak. Moving on to the restaurant, on page 26 of the report, he noted that restaurant expenses such as food, wages, and Revenue and pension contributions were paid from the restaurant account and all energy costs were paid through the Garda Vote. Further down on page 26, he stated that the audit took sample payments from 2009 and 2015. For supporting invoices and documentation in regard to each payment sampled, he was provided with all invoices and also provided with satisfactory explanations for payments to the account. On the work carried out on those two entities, which had a tax number, at any stage did Mr. Kelly ask were their taxes up to date?