Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

I would actually say that it is both. There is a definitely a capacity issue in some organisations. The audit of the financial statements does not just focus on the true and fair opinion. There is also the regularity and propriety work that we do, as well as the statement of internal financial control. The difficulty can arise if there is an accounting problem and there may not be the capacity on the other side to deal with it. That can slow down some of the work. In other situations, if we raise an issue around travel and subsistence or the use of credit cards, for example, it can be quite time consuming to get an explanation and we are not in a position to close off the financial statements until such time as we have that explanation. Those would be contributory factors.

In the fishery harbours, there was undoubtedly a problem that should have been dealt with quicker but there was a capacity and resource problem. It is an endemic problem. I would absolutely agree with the point the Chairman made about the submission of timely financial statements. It is something that we are trying to encourage. I also agree with the point that the Chairman made at a previous meeting that there should be an annual report and annual discussion on this. I would like to build on this note that I have prepared and present it on a regular basis to the committee to allow it to be monitored so that its policy and resource implications can be addressed.