Dan Boyle (Cork South Central, Green Party)

On Deputy Curran's point on whether we should have this debate, it is a quite legitimate use of this Chamber's time to discuss, as a matter of right, the annual report of the Comptroller and Auditor General before referring it to the Committee of Public Accounts, just as every Bill is subject to a Second Stage debate and subsequently referred to committee. I am privileged to serve on the Committee of Public Accounts, which I am pleased to say is quite effective in the limited role it is asked to play on behalf of this Parliament. Just as the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General can only record historically, the Committee of Public Accounts is limited similarly in that it can only say what has happened after it has happened. It lacks the power to intervene and to be proactive rather than reactive.

In having this debate, which should happen on an annual basis, we should bear in mind the need to reform the Committee of Public Accounts and give additional resources and powers to the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General. The dispiriting aspect to this debate is that, even today during Leaders' Questions, the Taoiseach stated by way of defending himself that the issue of the payroll computer system for the Health Service Executive was mentioned in last year's annual report by the Comptroller and Auditor General. That being the case, the Taoiseach has no defence because, since the issuing of that report, the circumstances in question have deteriorated and have been left unchallenged. No one at administrative level and particularly at political level has been able to take responsibility for the matter.

The litany of instances of over-expenditure exposed by the Comptroller and Auditor General——

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