Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

Deputy Enright obviously participates in discussions by her party's Front Bench on many issues. I have noted the use to which her party has applied the Committee of Public Accounts in recent months. The job of the committee is not to interrogate public policy but to check State accounts. This is not an accidental matter referred to in Standing Orders but a fundamental practice in Departments. The Accounting Officer takes responsibility for these matters within the Department and has authority superior to the Minister in that connection and cannot be directed by the Minister.

Were the Deputy to become Minister for Education and Science, there are certain functions the Secretary General of the Department, as the Accounting Officer, would not allow her to carry out. The Accounting Officer, in turn, is accountable to an Oireachtas committee in respect of these matters. That is the system and the provision simply makes the practices in regard to the colleges consistent with this system. It is not the function of the Committee of Public Accounts to criticise or evaluate Government policy. This can be done elsewhere. Its function is to examine the accounts of expenditure of Departments.

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