Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

This is the largest liquidation in the history of the State. The oversight of it is with the Department of Finance as opposed to being supervised by the courts. It is a big issue and sometimes we deal with issues that are relatively small, in monetary terms in comparison with something like this. This is a big item and I am unhappy that we have not arrived at a conclusion at this stage about whether there should be an expansion, for example, in this committee having oversight or there being a committee of oversight.

The Comptroller and Auditor General confirmed to me that Irish Water was another case where a significant amount of assets, €11 billion worth, were transferred from the local authorities to Irish Water. There is a big capital budget. Mr. McCarthy told us before that negotiations are ongoing between the Department and his office about the extension of oversight by the Committee of Public Accounts of Irish Water. When does he think that will come to a conclusion? There is a gap there in a fairly significant organisation.