Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have one more question on something that came up under these Votes under discussion for today's committee and I would be interested in the Minister's view.

We are aware that the Comptroller and Auditor General does vital work. I am wondering what is the reason behind it being based within the Department of Finance here. As the nominee independent auditor of Departments, public bodies under the aegis of those Departments, etc., I would have through that the Comptroller and Auditor General would be independent of the Civil Service and fall under the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, DPER. Given DPER's role in ensuring that public funds and resources are used in accordance with the law, managed to good effect and properly accounted for, and to contribute to improvement in public administration, I would have thought it would fall under DPER.

Under the current arrangement which sees it as part of the Civil Service, the Comptroller and Auditor General lacks autonomy and resources in the office. One report found that limitations on the role of the office included a restricted mandate to carry out value-for-money audits, a generally limited mandate to examine the effectiveness of public expenditure and the limited extent to which the Comptroller and Auditor General can follow public money once it gets into the hands of a non-Government organisation. I am wondering had there been conversations at any point either on moving the Comptroller and Auditor General to DPER, the Department which carried out public service reform, or making the Comptroller and Auditor General independent so that these issues could be addressed. I would be interested in hearing the Minister's point of view. That is my final question as I must run to the Dáil Chamber.