Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Mr. Gleeson has been asked a few times about the fixed assets. He is going to say the Department is working on it but we know that. However, I find what is in front of us to be extraordinary. I am only talking about the office equipment and other machinery, not buildings or anything like that. There was a cost valuation of €233 million and depreciation of €221 million. The net value of the assets was €10 million. That is what the balance sheet shows on page 13. It shows the Department had additions of €5.5 million in 2017. The Comptroller and Auditor General informs me there were additions of €3 million in 2016 and €4.7 million in 2015. Even allowing for depreciation on what was purchased in 2015, 2016 and 2017, they would have a net asset value of €10.6 million. If those figures mean anything, they are saying that everything prior to that had been at 100% depreciation. Are those figures based on the time since the foundation of the State? We would want to be going back 70 years to have purchases of office equipment of €232 million given that the Department is spending €3 million to €5 million a year. Is that figure inclusive of figures that are 60 or 70 years old? It seems that way to me. The Department should forget about trying to update that register if it has stuff going back 70 years.