Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

If the Deputy recalls, the committee wrote to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform on 23 November setting out three areas where it was of the view that substantial changes were needed. The Department pointed out it was already making changes in one area relating to legal costs. One of the other areas was pay and staffing. One of the things requested was remuneration details for the Accounting Officer. It is well established as regards chief officers in other organisations that it is the actual payment in the year that is reported. The Accounting Officer who replied regarding that on 6 January stated, in effect, the Department would consider the changes that were laid out but the circular had already issued for 2021. In the context of changes for 2022, the Department is willing to engage in a dialogue and to look at how things might be measured and defined and so on. The committee's subsequent letter was dated 31 January so there was not a major delay in responding to the committee's request that remuneration of the Accounting Officer could be included for 2021. That was the sequence.

The big changes I see are in the other area, which relates to EU claims and funding. There was a suggestion by the committee in November that things such as the gender pay gap would be included. A little work will be involved in arriving at a set of definitions so that everybody is clear what it is we are trying to measure and report.