Mr. John McCarthy:

The NOAC pointed to the importance of best practice and of ensuring that the internal audit functions in local authorities were operating to the standards of the Institute of Internal Auditors. Those standards are relevant to the internal audit functions of all organisations.

Ms Maguire has referred to the issue of improving the professional qualifications of people within internal audit functions. Another thing to which they pointed was, I suppose, proper multi-annual audit programming that gets the best out of internal audit functions in local authorities.