Conor Lenihan (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)

Under the Government's decentralisation programme, the development co-operation directorate of the Department of Foreign Affairs will decentralise to Limerick. This is scheduled to take place during the second half of 2007 and will involve the relocation to Limerick of 124 posts. In addition, and in order to help effect the smoothest possible transfer to Limerick, an advance party involving approximately 50 staff is scheduled to decentralise in May. Overall, personnel have at present either been assigned to, or identified for, some 90 posts or approximately 73% of the 124 posts scheduled to be decentralised to Limerick.

Development specialists perform an important role in the business of Irish Aid. The specialists work alongside diplomatic and general service staff, in close contact and co-operation with each business unit within the division. There are a number of issues to be worked out with regard to the specialist posts which are also scheduled to move to Limerick. Discussions are ongoing at a senior level with representatives of the specialists, with their union, IMPACT, and with the Departments of Finance and Foreign Affairs in order to resolve all the outstanding issues involved. Progress has been made and I hope that these discussions can be brought to a successful conclusion at an early date. Until these sensitive discussions are concluded, it would be premature to speculate on the number of specialist posts which might be decentralised to Limerick.

In addition to the development specialist posts at headquarters, there are 20 development specialists attached to the embassies working with Irish Aid in our programme countries.

Almost all members of the senior management team for Limerick are in place. In this regard, the director general of Irish Aid will be decentralising to Limerick, as will seven counsellors or principal officers who are already in place in the directorate. The changeover of the senior management team, just as in other grades, has been implemented in a planned and careful way so as to minimise disruption to the business of the directorate.

Irish Aid has a dedicated evaluation and audit unit, which contributes to an efficient and effective development programme by ensuring accountability and lesson learning. The unit's mission includes promoting the culture of evaluation and audit within Irish Aid. The specific role of the internal audit element of the unit is independently to examine and report to management and the Accounting Officer on whether public funds and resources have been used for the purposes for which they have been authorised or allocated.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House.

The evaluation and audit unit has a staff of eight at headquarters. The Department is currently recruiting two additional auditors to further strengthen the unit. A further six auditors are based in the programme country offices. The work of these locally recruited auditors is overseen by the evaluation and audit unit, and complements the work of field office accountants.

The evaluation and audit unit undertakes its own internal audit work, commissions internationally recognised audit firms to conduct external audits of directly-funded projects, and also makes use of audits commissioned by partners, which are undertaken by internationally recognised audit firms or by national auditors-general. Multilateral organisations and non-governmental partners of Irish Aid are also the subject of statutory and other audits.

This audit coverage is supplemented by a reliance on partner governments' own public expenditure reviews, work carried out by other donors, and internationally conducted country assessments, typically led by IMF-World Bank officials. In addition, Irish Aid works in collaboration with other donors and our partners to strengthen their financial management and auditing systems.

A number of initiatives are being taken in order to strengthen the audit function of Irish Aid. An audit tracking officer has been appointed to engage with management on follow-through and to report on implementation of audit recommendations that require action at headquarters. In addition, a series of meetings has been held with heads of mission in Africa, and local accountants and auditors, aimed at strengthening financial evaluation and audit procedures in the field, including follow-through on audit recommendations to partners.

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