Mr. Brian Hayes MEP:

Thank you very much, Chairman. You can see us, but we cannot see you. It is a great privilege to engage in this discussion and I thank the Chairman for allowing this to happen. I thank Mr. Cardiff for his presentation. He regularly appears before the European Parliament's budgetary control committee of which I am a substitute member along with another Irish MEP. We appreciate all the information he has provided. I have some questions arising from it. As Mr. Cardiff rightly said at the end of his presentation, we are now in the status of being a net contributor, even though it is hard to calculate whether one is a net contributor or a net recipient. However, we are very much moving in the direction of contributing more to the EU budget than we are taking from it. However, since Ireland joined the EU, in nominal terms we have obtained something like €44 billion or €45 billion from various budgets over that period.

My question relates to the upcoming decision on the negotiation by the United Kingdom in this area as it makes a large contribution to the budget. Does the European Court of Auditors have a view on how it will handle this issue? What will be the legal position in terms of new commitments in the budget when the British inform the other 27 member states that Article 50 has been triggered? Is it the case that the decision will lapse? Will the court continue with its perusal of EU decisions, including funding decisions that involve the UK? Where will those commitments stand once Article 50 has been invoked?

If the existing multi-annual financial framework, MFF, which is just shy of €1 trillion, remains in place for the next number of years, it may well impact on the amount of money that Ireland must contribute over and above our current commitments. Is the European Court of Auditors considering this issue?

Mr. Cardiff spoke about the useful special reports issued by the European Court of Auditors. I understand approximately 30 such reports were published last year and roughly the same number have been published this year. What are the court's plans in this area for this year and next year? I am hearing in Brussels that the number of special reports will increase next year. Will Mr. Cardiff clarify the position?

In producing special reports, the European Court of Auditors assesses a group of member states rather than all 28 of them. How does the court determine what group of member states is examined to ensure a proper assessment is done? How does it select the four or five member states in the group? This is an important issue.

It is important to note that the error rate in respect of the court's work declined in 2015. This is the most important ingredient in identifying how exactly we spend our limited funds across the 28 member states of the European Union. I welcome Mr. Cardiff's presentation and thank him for the work he does with the other members of the European Court of Auditors.