Mr. Dónall Ó Cualáin:

White collar crime is also criminal, Deputy. Much of our training in the area for detectives and senior investigating officers certainly has modules on the investigation of white collar crime.

The approach taken to financial management in An Garda Síochána is essentially confined to an imprest account at district level. That caters for most of how the Vote is managed in An Garda Síochána. There was a need in the college to address an issue which did not replicate itself in any other area of the organisation. This was a unique set-up at the Garda college. There was of course an imprest account to run the normal day-to-day expenses of gardaí who were working there and so forth It is the add-on piece that has caused the problems. When one applies what the auditor referred to as "the blue book", or the bible of public management procedures, the Garda Síochána financial code, which is what all of us as officers were trained in coming up through the ranks, was and remains very adequate for managing the normal imprest account. When it comes to something that was uncovered during the process over the last ten years in the college, however, there is obviously a broader matter here which goes to the broader public financial management systems. This raises the question as to whether or not our Garda finance code is sufficiently fit for purpose in that context. My colleagues might prove more instructive in this regard and give the committee more detail, but when it comes to the training received by our officers all of the promotion courses include modules on the management of finance and imprest accounts. These are the same in every district in the country. They are run in the same way with the same processes, procedures and checks and balances built in around them. What happened in the college was unique and outside the normal way of doing business.