Ms Mairead McGuinness:

It is good to be able to join the committee this evening. My comments are more by way of observation than questioning as Mr. Cardiff has answered a lot of questions I had in reply to other speakers. There is an interesting comment under one of the slides on financial management and the second bullet point about the increasing use of financial instruments not directly funded by the EU budget nor audited by the court which poses higher risks for accountability and the co-ordination of EU policies and operations. Discuss please. It is interesting that the court has made that observation and I would like to hear a little bit more comment on it.