Ms Josephine Feehily:

We were aware of the appropriation account information, and, in fact, we followed that discussion closely. Something the Deputy will have seen in our various reports that I mentioned, including the two year report and the submission to the commission, is that we have asked for the removal of duplication and for the removal of ambiguity. Our role in relation to the resources of An Garda Síochána is very circumscribed and very narrow. From the outset, we have tried to get ourselves more closely involved with the Department of Justice and Equality and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform so that we become part of that resourcing discussion. When we cannot do it that way, we come at the issue a different way and we do it from a performance perspective. We also come at it from the point of view of our determination to increase the proportion of civilians in the Garda.

Part of our concern about the spend on ICT would have been that we think some of it could have been done by skilled professionals hired directly by the Garda, probably for less money. That partly is what would have been behind the comment in the quarterly report to the Minister. Also, it is the case that for private sector bodies, the bottom line is repeat business. That is what they do. We were extremely concerned. We have not been able to get good benefits realisation statements from the Garda about what it was actually getting for this spend in detailed form. That is what is behind our concerns. We come at it through whatever areas we have power, which is civilianisation and the implementation of the modernisation plan, and ask what it is getting for the money, rather than our oversight of the money.

Turning to the public procurement breaches, we took the view when the Comptroller and Auditor General audited, which is as high as one can get in auditing terms, and of which the Committee of Public Accounts had oversight, that it had its own oversight machine and we had enough to get on with.

When the chair of the audit committee comes before us in a couple of months' time with its annual report, we will ask how the committee assures itself. There is a great deal of statutory machinery in the form of an audit committee, the Comptroller and Auditor General and the Committee of Public Accounts, and we follow their work with interest.