Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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We keep raising this at meetings of the Committee of Public Accounts. When Departments are dealing with money, they must look on it as if it were their money because it is taxpayers’ money, or money paid by the taxpayer. This needs to be clearly fixed in the mindset of the public sector in terms of how it operates. It is operating with taxpayers’ money. I often find this does not appear to come through.

In the context in question, a sum of €4 million was spoken about. Many schools in my constituency are looking for €1 million or €2 million to construct classrooms. The €4 million would more than contribute towards this. In isolation, each sum of money is significant but when added up they comprise a tremendous amount. The State operates on a cashflow basis. Therefore, if the €30 million that has gone to NAMA were not in NAMA, it would be put to far more constructive use in the short term in terms of the delivery of services on the ground, which is the role of the Government. We collect money from the citizens and taxpayers, including people who pay VAT, right across the spectrum and they are entitled to be certain their money will be spent in the most prudent manner. That is the role of this committee.

With this particular report, we need to put in place a structure, particularly in respect of lead authorities and proper due diligence, which is many cases is not applied. Applying due diligence is the normal process to ensure the circumstances under discussion do not arise. In this particular case, that of the land swap, the State or Departments were left off the hook by the establishment of NAMA, which is still resulting in a cashflow delay as money is going into NAMA and not to people on the ground. We should be very strong on this issue.