Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am sorry I am late. One of the reasons, about which the Cathaoirleach will be glad to hear, is that there was a dog on the M1. I do not know if it was a Fianna Fáil dog or not. It caused a bit of disruption but went quietly in the end. It held us all up for about 20 minutes.

I welcome Mr. McCarthy to the committee. I know he has been the chairperson of committees and is very knowledgeable. I wish to make a number of small points. The accountability of local government and audits is hugely important. When was the last independent analysis of local government financing done? This relates to how councils present their accounts and data. I often felt councillors were very knowledgeable but they are given reports in a set format by the local authority. When I was a member - we cannot be, and have not been, members for a number of years - one of the things I was aware of was that the headings and subheadings could not be changed. One could find a couple of million euro in a miscellaneous account and one did not know what it was for. An independent analysis of the structures to look behind these miscellaneous items and to look at what I always believed was hidden expenditure that was not accountable and that one could not get at might change the perception.

The other point relates to the annual budget. Councillors have always had a statutory role in passing the local authority finance provisions but they never had the time or expertise to go through the budget properly, that is, line by line, item by item. If councillors had access to an independent view or analysis of what was there and of what they were being told, that there might be a better outcome. I am not accusing local authority officials of hiding things; I am not. The more transparency there is, the better. In County Louth, there is a great deficit in the local authority. Parking spaces for commuters are being cut as are high profile items of great importance which everybody wants. We must try to see behind this and get accountability. I am not sure if that is the role of the commission. This would very helpful as far as I am concerned.