Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 6 October 2020

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach

Revised Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Tax Appeals Commission (Revised)

Photo of Seán FlemingSeán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

His question was more on policy than on the operation of the office. Policy is a matter that this committee will deal with and it is not an Estimates issue. I suggest that this committee can consider the role, brief and remit of the financial services ombudsman but all we are doing today is seeking to grant a request from the ombudsman for a certain amount of money for this year. There is a wider debate to be had at this committee with the ombudsman rather than just discussing a specific allocation but this is the allocation the ombudsman is to be given. The 2021 Estimate, which will be published next week, is where that debate can move on to next.

As members will know, the Comptroller and Auditor General issues a report and audits at the end of September each year on each of the Government Departments. That report normally has about 20 chapters and it was published last week. During the course of the year, the Comptroller and Auditor General can issue a number of special reports. It could be two, three, four, five or six reports, depending on the Comptroller and Auditor General's priorities. Each of those reports is considered by the Committee of Public Accounts and to wear my hat as the last Chairman of that committee, we were assiduous in issuing quarterly reports to follow up on the recommendations of the Comptroller and Auditor General. The Committee of Public Accounts follows up on the recommendations in the reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General. Then when we issue that report it goes back to the Minister for Finance for a considered response, having taken in a response from the relevant Department. It then comes back to the Committee of Public Accounts and the committee accepts that there has been a good response, that progress is ongoing or that there is a good reason something is not happening. It can refuse to endorse the response from the Minister at that point. That completes the chain of accountability in the Oireachtas and those reports have been consistently operating. Those reports are published on the website of the Committee of Public Accounts and that issue can be followed up by the Committee of Public Accounts for the last year or so because it is over 12 months since the last time the committee issued a report.

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