Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)

Under the Roads Act 1993, the NRA is required to prepare and submit annual accounts to me which are then presented to both Houses of the Oireachtas. The authority is also subject to the code of practice for the governance of State bodies which requires it to comply with requirements relating to a broad range of matters, including remuneration, risk management, audit, procurement and capital investment, and to report annually to me on compliance with those requirements. In addition, I meet with senior representatives of the NRA on a regular basis, for example, on four occasions in 2008 and in May of this year. This is in addition to informal meetings with NRA board members and senior officials at the many road openings during the year.

Specifically on Oireachtas oversight, I note that already this year the NRA appeared before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport on 15 July and the Oireachtas Joint Committee on the Environment, Heritage and Local Government on 6 October. In addition, the NRA will appear again before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport on 18 November and before the Committee of Public Accounts on 3 December with my Department. This is hardly evidence of a lack of public accountability.

CIE must prepare and submit to me an annual report and accounts which I in turn submit to the Government and place before the Houses of the Oireachtas. It must prepare and submit half-yearly accounts to me. It must also comply with the requirements of the code of practice for the governance of State bodies on a broad range of matters, including remuneration, risk management, audit, procurement and capital investment, and the chairman must report annually to me on compliance with the requirements of the code.

The CIE chairman and the chief executives of the three operating companies appear regularly before Oireachtas committees, particularly the Joint Committee on Transport. Since January 2008, the chairman and-or chief executives of the CIE companies have appeared before Oireachtas committees on nine occasions. The companies are also subject to the accounting rules and practices and independent auditing standards that apply to any commercial undertaking.

I meet regularly with the chairman and-or chief executives of the CIE companies. I have had 11 formal meetings with the chairman and-or chief executives of the CIE companies since 1 January 2008. I am also accountable to the Oireachtas in respect of my statutory functions whether through parliamentary questions, debates on Estimates and my Department's output statement, policy debates, Private Members' business, Adjournment debates and so on.

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