Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

First, I congratulate Mr. John Purcell, the outgoing Comptroller and Auditor General, on his outstanding public service during his period in office. He has been an outstanding public servant. I know many of the people who have worked with him on his staff and he has been a leader in the development of public service auditing and reporting in a way that has marked him out as being among the best in Europe in seeking to use the position of Comptroller and Auditor General in the way intended in the Constitution as a further mechanism to ensure accountability in the way taxpayers' money which is hard earned before it is handed over to the taxman is used for the public good. During the time I served on the Committee of Public Accounts which was brief but extremely instructive Mr. Purcell always kept in view the taxpayer's entitlement to an account of how his or her money had been spent; to know whether, with due consideration and expert examination, it had been spent properly for the purposes set down by the Government and reported to the House, and whether value for money had been achieved.

Value for money reporting has been one of the most innovative developments that Mr. Purcell has undertaken. I hope this is something the new Comptroller and Auditor General will not only continue, but expand. I recall many outstanding reports which Mr. Purcell produced and published. For instance, the report on PPARS sought to set out what exactly had happened to this €150 million or €160 million project and how in the spending of this enormous sum of taxpayers' money the goal of the project was not achieved.

I am particularly conscious that Mr. Purcell produced many ground-breaking reports on tax collection and the efficiency of the Revenue Commissioners who operate at a high level. Nowadays there is roughly the same number of Revenue staff collecting vastly more taxes and through the use of computerisation, they have massively increased productivity and efficiency. By showing the extent to which certain very wealthy individuals in Irish society have the privilege not only of being wealthy through their own good fortune but through the tax laws of being in a position to make little or no contribution to the tax coffers, Mr. Purcell did the public an important service.

Mr. Purcell also commented on pet constituency projects of Ministers at different times when there was more money available than at present and they could be flaithiúlach. I recall, for instance, reports on the proposed Bertie bowl at Abbottstown in Dublin 15 and on spending on the upgrading of Punchestown, a pet project of the former Minister for Finance and now Commissioner, Mr. Charlie McCreevy. In fact, some of these projects, while laudable, could almost be constituted vanity projects on the part of Ministers who considered that once they had the money, they could throw it in any direction they liked.

I wish the incoming Comptroller and Auditor General well. He has worked with Mr. Purcell and will bring to the job much experience of auditing, public service management and the peculiarities of public service accounting, which is really an esoteric science that few, including Mr. Buckley, understand. Although the old saying, an auditor is a watchdog, not a bloodhound, is repeated endlessly, it is important because the watchdog has oversight powers. The bloodhound often goes after pennies and one does not learn much of modern management.

With the last budget, we have moved into a new era of public accounting in which we now receive output reports, many of which, to put it charitably, are deeply challenging in that they do not say anything about serious outputs. Rather they tend to confirm that Departments met all of the objectives they were set but they do not really tell us what happened and whether the money was well spent. This is a critical issue with which Mr. Buckley must grapple and he will be challenged to be as innovative as Mr. Purcell was on value for money audits.

On a technical point, under the Constitution this appointment is made by Dáil Éireann on the nomination of Government. I regret that there was no real consultation with Opposition party leaders and spokespersons on finance in filling this important position. There was a courtesy telephone call from the Taoiseach, Deputy Cowen, after the decision had been made. That is not good enough. That is not what the Constitution provides for in terms of consultation. I do not want to take in any way from Mr. Buckley's appointment because I know he will be a fine public servant in the established tradition, but it is important that the Opposition should be consulted. We are still not clear on the procedures for the appointment within the Civil Service. We do not know whether it is a promotional opportunity and a limited number of people can apply. We do not know if it is made under the new Civil Service regime under which appointments are meant to be the subject to a degree of open competition. We do not even know if there were other candidates for the job. In saying this I am not implying anything about Mr. Buckley, but querying the mechanisms under which the appointment was made. I do not think it is satisfactory that consultation with the other parties in the Dáil consists simply of a telephone call by the Taoiseach, Deputy Cowen, after the event.

I wish the new Comptroller and Auditor General well. As he probes the mysteries of Government accounting and explains it to the rest of us, I hope that he enjoys the job. I also hope that he is able to imbue the staff in his office with the same kind of spirit, teamwork and sheer service that the staff in that office have always offered to those of us who have been privileged to be members of the Committee of Public Accounts.

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