Bernard Allen (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)

I know that the Comptroller and Auditor General holds office independently of Government. In the past two months the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, and the Tánaiste, Deputy Coughlan, have called on the Comptroller and Auditor General to carry out investigations into universities and into FÁS.

Does the Taoiseach propose to bring forward a motion asking this House to direct the Comptroller and Auditor General to carry out these investigations or were these statements to serve merely as crutches because the Ministers did not act within their own Departments on these issues? The Taoiseach could introduce a motion to this end if the Government is serious about the matter.

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