Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

From what Mr. Nolan is saying, the national Parliament will not get access to this information until 2050, that is, we will not have sight of the information on matters which Mr. Nolan says are commercially sensitive until the contract expires in 30 years time. Mr. Nolan must accept from the point of view of the Committee of Public Accounts that we do not accept that this is how it should be. It is an issue we will return to. We may have to come to some arrangement whereby Parliament has some mechanism where, on a very confidential basis, it can review the documentation. It would not be in public, but at least we could say as Members of the Oireachtas, we had examined it and come to a conclusion, yay or nay. As it stands, we cannot give any approval. It gives me difficulty in signing off these accounts when we have unanswered questions. Large proportions of the payments going through the accounts are public private partnerships and we have no concept as to whether they are value for money. I hope they are but we need evidence on our side. The Comptroller and Auditor General can sign off his audit report because he has had access to it but we, as members of the Committee of Public Accounts, are not in that position. Mr. Nolan will understand that this committee may have to take that as a policy position, across all public private partnership, because we cannot be expected -----