Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will answer. The Accounting Officers can be compelled, but we do not ever want to go that route. He is the head of a Government office, that being, the Office of Government Procurement, and the head of the office should be here, full stop. It is proper practice. If the head of a Government office that gets voted expenditure from the Dáil feels he or she should not attend the Committee of Public Accounts, we will have a big issue about whether the Dáil should give that organisation money. The Accounting Officer should also attend, but we need the head of the organisation because the Accounting Officer does not run it on a day-to-day basis. We will need both here. We will put the matter on our work programme and ask the secretariat to work in a date as soon as practicable.

We will now suspend before meeting the officials from the Department and we will finish our deliberations by lunchtime.