Mr. Ronan Gallagher:

There is some clarification in response to Deputy Murphy's query around the Comptroller and Auditor General which might throw some light on that as well, but what I can confirm is that the IAA provides the Department with quarterly financial accounts. Under the code of governance for State bodies the Department has obligations to hold its agencies to account and in that respect we have financial information and the annual accounts are subject to a memo for Government and are laid before the Houses so in that sense the Oireachtas has sight of it. In addition, the principle of cost recovery is quite a discipline within EU regulations. It means that the IAA has to demonstrate that the resources it has, the people it recruits and the activities it carries out are in direction relationship to its regulatory functions.