David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We should welcome the fact that we got a comprehensive report from them. I echo the points that have been made. There does seem to be benefit coming from the fact that we are shining a spotlight on the issue, which is good. I understand some of the reasons that have come back and it gives us a greater understanding as to why there is non-compliance. However, the overall figure of €5.4 million is very high. As the previous Deputy said, the procurement system remains heavily dependent on self-reporting which is a red flag, from my perspective. The document goes on to state that there is no facility to implement real-time controls and that the agency will continue to rely heavily on a manual review process to ensure compliance with procurement guidelines. It is not acceptable that there are no real-time controls. They need to outline to the committee how they are going to put those controls in place and when. It is one of the agencies with which we can work because it has given us a comprehensive report. We should acknowledge that when responding but maybe we should seek further information as to how they are going to go from a self-reporting system to one that has much better controls.