Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I want to get the advice of the Comptroller and Auditor General on the points made on postage costs. It is very clear from the breakdown given that the overall figure of €13.8 million for post and telecommunications is largely, as we suspected, with regard to the postage of payslips, which amounts to more than €10 million. In the course of the Secretary General's contribution, he mentioned there may be the possibility of using an existing or planned upgrade to allow a system to be implemented. My question as a new member of the committee is how we track this. It was a formal issue raised with the Secretary General. He has written to us to outline the figures but has not given us a commitment or responded in any way as to how he would address the costs, which I call "wasteful". While we might give him the time between now and when he next comes before us, I would hate for him to give us the same answer then.