Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Will Mr. Breen give us information on that? The agency knows to whom it pays this money and, if it is paying it into the court, will Mr. Breen send the committee some notes as to the value of cases? There is going to be a Dáil debate on this issue on the sums being managed by the ward of court and it would be interesting to know from the State Claims Agency in how many cases there have been payments into the ward of court fund and the volume of money for each of the past few years. I presume Mr. Breen can obtain that, and Mr. McCarthy might come in on that in a minute.

The committee spoke about the issue of wards of court before Mr. Breen came in and there is going to be a Dáil debate on the management of that fund. It is legislation and some people might feel it is a policy issue and maybe such a fund might be better managed by the NTMA or through the agency. There is a financial expertise in your full organisation. The wards of court are judges who appoint professional advisers to advise them on investment policy, and if there is a lot of money going from the State over to that fund, I am querying, as Chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts, whether it would not make more sense to have the best experts we have managing these funds, instead of the court. I accept it involves changes in legislation and the independence of the court, but maybe they do not need to be doing this job anymore. It is a financial management job and it is a bigger issue that none of us can answer. Given that there is going to be a Dáil debate on this issue in the near future, will Mr. Breen send on the information I am looking for?