Mr. David Moloney:

It is quite complex because there are those different blocks of legislation. There is the Ministers and Secretaries Act, the Public Service Management Act and the Civil Service Regulation Act. Then of course there are the responsibilities of the Accounting Officer, which operate almost as a separate pillar. The role is therefore a complex one. It is capable of causing some confusion, particularly in terms of the interaction between the Ministers and Secretaries Act and the Public Service Management Act. At a general level, Secretaries General are responsible for running their Department but a Minister of the Government might be forgiven for thinking that they were able to take decisions in relation to the day-to-day operation of a Department. The two Acts need to come together in that context. There is a level of complexity involved and that is something that we can always review. The international experience is that these same issues are grappled with. The OECD material underlines the idea that these issues are grappled with across many jurisdictions. Greater clarity is always possible but specific functions are set out in the different items of legislation. It is in the implementation of those functions that there is sometimes the potential for misunderstanding what is or is not allowable.