Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Notwithstanding anything that has been said, I do not think we can look at this legislation or leave what many of us consider an anomaly in it the expectation that other legislation to address this matter will be brought forward in the future. In fact, the current position reinforces the problematic nature of what is being proposed because it is the Secretary General who is the Accounting Officer for the Defence Forces. In other words, this is the person who is accountable for the expenditure. The external oversight body has to either be a step removed from that or it has to be all-inclusive. The prudent thing at this point is to ensure that the external oversight body is either, as I said, inclusive or is not seen to be skewed towards the Department through the adoption of either of these amendments. That is what is required.