Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I ask the witnesses to give us a response to that. When representatives of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine were here we asked this question. Where is all the money coming in? We could not see it in the Vote for that Department. The official responded that the Comptroller and Auditor General does not audit it, nor does the Accounting Officer. It is an EU account audited at EU level. That is another major account, probably with €1.5 billion going through it, that is not remotely integrated into our finances. The witnesses know the question I am asking. I ask them to come back to the committee with a detailed note on that issue.

I also wish to address the debt. The witnesses show that the debt is to increase slightly during the next couple of years, by a couple of billion euro. I take it that the State is running a current account surplus?