John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Can we have a note on that? Regarding the work of the Comptroller and Auditor General, I would like to mention that the fact that local government, which is one of the biggest spending parts of Government, is not audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General. This has been spoken about for years but it seems that either the Department of Finance is afraid to take them on because of the strength of their operation or there is some other reason. In the context of policy, the local authorities and Irish Water should be audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General. It is as if there is a bucket with holes in it and the Comptroller and Auditor General is looking after it, but there is also another bucket with no bottom at all, and that is Irish Water and local government. They seem to be getting poor scrutiny regarding value for taxpayers' money. I would like to see that included in any discussion that the Department has about the control of finances, the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General, and what is required. I bring it to the Minister of State as a policy issue.

I will address the matter of Revenue. For those who have found themselves employed from home, it has been proven that productivity has gone up. The outcome for those employees is quite satisfactory. Will they get the opportunity to continue to work from home now that Revenue has seen how well it operates? Will Revenue develop a working from home policy for certain categories of Revenue employees in order to take up the increase in productivity that is occurring because they are working from home?