Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 16 February 2017

Public Accounts Committee

2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Chapter 7 - EU Refunds and Levies in the Agriculture Sector

9:00 am

Mr. Aidan O'Driscoll:

I agree; we should be able to get it done within the next couple of weeks. I stress, however, that we do have the accounts which have been signed off on.

As I said, it is contested, but I stress that the board is exercising its responsibilities in a very difficult situation. There is a very high debt of over €20 million. Indecon produced a detailed report in which it made certain recommendations. Essentially, what the board is doing is working through some of the recommendations made in the report, including asset sales. As this is a responsibility of the board, I will not insert myself into it, but it is taking the decision it is taking because of a very high debt level and-----