Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

Mr. Buckley, as Comptroller and Auditor General, and his staff do excellent work. However, the exercise being carried out in my Department comes under my direction as Minister for Finance. I do not believe it would be constitutionally proper for the Comptroller and Auditor General to be involved in that process. Under the Constitution, he is an independent officer who works for this House and he is not, in any sense, accountable or responsible to me in the context of formulating or suggesting improvements to policy. While I appreciate the spirit in which Deputy O'Donnell made his point, I do not believe the course he suggests is open to me. Those involved in the expenditure review within the Department can, however, draw on the expertise of Mr. Buckley and can also draw on the reports furnished by him and his predecessors.

The Deputy's intervention raises the wider question of whether a focused review of expenditure should be a permanent feature in respect of the expenditure side of my Department's activities. That is a matter I am considering in the context of the McCarthy operation.

The budgetary headings to which Deputy O'Donnell refers have been established for a long period. Like him, I have read many accounts in my lifetime and I was extremely puzzled by the way in which the public accounts are presented when I first encountered them.

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