Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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I welcome Mr. Cardiff and his officials to the meeting and thank him for his very interesting report. Mr. Cardiff stated that half of the Court of Auditors' resources are used for the purpose of preparation of the annual report. Mr. Cardiff might clarify whether that also includes the court's investigative work. Mr. Cardiff also stated that the increase in the error margin since 2009 is not down to a change in methodology. One must presume, therefore, that there is a greater waste or misuse of funds within the Union. Perhaps Mr. Cardiff would clarify that. Another issue is the intentional error versus unintentional error or error versus fraud. Mr. Cardiff touched on the area of agriculture, which is particularly important in Ireland. I would maintain in defence of agriculture that a great number of the errors in terms of land declaration are unintentional. It is possible these are being picked up now because Ireland has one of the most advanced satellite land imaging systems. I assume this system will be rolled out across the European Union. In my view, there would be very little fraud in this area and many of the errors identified are unintentional. In their defence, farmers would have over a number of years submitted maps and forms to the Department that would have included unintentional errors, which errors would not heretofore have been picked up. Where they are picked up, there is a recoupment of funding. It is a contentious point. However, these errors would be, in my view, unintentional errors.

Regarding the recovery of misspent funds, is this left to the member states? I am speaking in this regard not of misspend in the area of agriculture but across the board. Where errors are identified, does the Court of Auditors follow up on these or is this left to the Departments of the member states to deal with? Ultimately, what are the sanctions in this regard? I presume where funds are not repaid, fines are imposed and so on.

There are no country comparisons in the report. Are there persistent offenders within the Union? Are there any other areas in Ireland outside of agriculture in respect of which errors have been identified?