David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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I take on board the fact that the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General has put on the record several times, when we have been asking questions, that there have been improvements. When we discover issues and when we see improvements, we must acknowledge the improvements that have been made, and we have acknowledged those. There has been a huge improvement in the health area, which is good. While we have seen improvements in the education sector, it has not been what we want, perhaps, which is in the presentation of accounts.

An area where we still see recurring problems, and it is in almost in half of the audit on subsets of health, HSE and education spending, is in adherence to procurement rules and non-compliance in terms of procurement. We spoke about a carrot and stick approach in terms of the presentation of accounts. There does not seem to be much stick, as far as I can see, in cases of non-compliance with procurement rules by any public bodies. Does Mr. Watt think that it is acceptable for us, almost year in and year out, when we get the audited opinion from the Comptroller and Auditor General, to get a lack of adherence to and non-compliance with procurement rules? The matter is raised repeatedly and the Comptroller and Auditor General raises it, yet there has been no real improvement of any substance, as far as I can see. Perhaps there has been an improvement in some areas but the problem continues to arise. Does Mr. Watt see that as acceptable behaviour? If not, given that the matter is under his remit, what focus has he put on this area?