Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 118:

In page 18, line 11, to delete “not”.

This simple amendment will remove the word "not".

The relevant section of the Bill states: "In appearing before the Committee referred to in subsection (1), the chief executive appears as a person accountable to the Committee and not as an accounting officer." I am interested in hearing from the Minister of State the logic of this. It seems a crucial facility for members of the relevant committee to be able to ask questions on the use of public moneys and lands as they would of Secretaries General of Departments. It is the normal practice not to allow this, but given the difficulties we have had with NAMA and the controversies around large financial and land transactions occurring out of public view because of commercial sensitivity redactions in freedom of information requests, I would have viewed this as a sensible transparency measure to allay public or political fears around the nature of the deals being done. Will the Minister of State explain the logic of not allowing the relevant individual to appear as the Accounting Officer? I would be interested in hearing his arguments.