Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 13 April 2017

Public Accounts Committee

Business of Committee

9:00 am

Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

On the existence of the commercial auditors, we rely on their work to the extent that it is appropriate to do so. We have an arrangement with them. We go in and look at the work they have done. If it addresses the areas that interest us or that we feel are appropriate we can rely on them once we have formed a judgment. We do additional work, particularly around propriety, regularity and so forth. We do not audit the subsidiaries per se. We try to minimise the cost to the public sector.