Conor Lenihan (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)

I would like to answer the very pertinent questions posed by the Deputy. My Department welcomes the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General. It is the first time in the 30-year history of the Irish Aid programme that the Comptroller and Auditor General has seen fit to investigate how this funding is spent. In response to his report, I made immediate representations, along with the Minister, Deputy Dermot Ahern, to the Minister for Finance, Deputy Cowen, for additional staff to cover our day-to-day needs in terms of audit, evaluation and monitoring of the dispersal of moneys under the aid programme. We were given an immediate positive response from the Minister in the form of 20 additional staff, 14 of whom have already been hired and are now deployed in the task of monitoring and evaluating the spending programme.

The programme is heavily audited. We are one of the few Departments with an internal audit committee composed entirely of external nominees rather than departmental officials. It is something of which we are proud. It is the most robust and independent internal audit committee in the entire Civil Service.

We are satisfied with the progress made to date on decentralisation. Some 69% of our staff complement have already indicated their wish to move to Limerick. We will send an advance party there in May to help the transition. The senior management team is mostly in place and will be fully in place before Christmas. I will not underestimate the challenges we face in regard to decentralisation. There are ongoing problems in respect of the professional technical grades, that is, the development specialists. Few of the more senior specialists have opted to go to Limerick because of a well publicised legal issue. That issue is before the courts in Europe. I assure Deputies that at the most senior level within my Department and in the Department of Finance, we are at an advanced point of negotiation to clear up this particular imbroglio, which must be resolved before staff can be fully transferred to Limerick.

See this speech in context