Mr. Michael McCarthy:

The short answer is this is such a specialised topic. Most of the elected members of any local authority have day jobs alongside their extremely busy roles as elected representatives. If I were to put myself in that situation, would I feel sufficiently knowledgeable? I do not think I would if I was an elected member of a local authority. Can I then fall back on the same level of specialised expertise as is provided by the Comptroller and Auditor General to the Committee of Public Accounts? I think the answer can only be "No".