Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North-West, Fianna Fail)

I thank the witnesses for being here and acknowledge the number of assistant secretaries present. It is not always the case. I want to note that and that it is appreciated. Like Deputy Bennett, I also have no train station, rail line or, indeed, golf course in my constituency but I might return to those local issues later in the questioning.

This week the Minister brought forward the proposal to Cabinet in regards to a designated activity company, DAC, which will facilitate the delivery of MetroLink. Witnesses will be aware of this committee's reports on MetroLink and, as a result, our concerns about how we would monitor the spending on that project going forward. Can they briefly outline how the existence of that stand-alone DAC might assist us in terms of the spending?

Something that has been discussed by the committee is the difficulty trying to identify the level of funding going into specific infrastructure projects for example, the MetroLink project, which is a very significant level of spending. Is there a reason that is not a subheading within the appropriation account?