Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Okay. I will just finish this one point. I have three or four more points to make before I let Deputy Kelly in with his question for Mr. O'Toole. Mr. Loftus has given an answer that is not acceptable to the Committee of Public Accounts. The question I put to Mr. Loftus and indeed to the Secretary General concerned requests received by the Department for staff to deal with this issue, and in answer to this Mr. Loftus raised the parameters of affordability and comparability. The first thing he should have addressed, however, was the need to meet statutory duties. Mr. Loftus did not name the meeting of statutory duty as one of his criteria; it does not seem to have applied here. Neither Mr. Loftus nor the Secretary General has the freedom to put statutory duties to one side. We cannot just forget about our statutory duties; we cannot afford it. What I am saying to the Department of Education and Skills today is that it has statutory duties. The first job of a public body is to meet its statutory duties, and not because these might be affordable or comparable to someone next door. The Department thus needs to reconsider the criteria under which it considers requests. Where there is a statutory duty, the first duty of a public body is to meet that duty. That did not feature here. The proof of this is in the fact that this year to date only two of the ETBs met their statutory duty to submit their accounts for 2016. This is why we are helping the Department ensure the ETBs meet their statutory duties for 2017 by early 2018. Does Mr. Loftus get my point?