Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)

I support my colleague, Deputy Hogan, and agree with what he said. He was correct to say that the aspirations behind the setting up of the Dublin Docklands Development Authority were noble. The same is true in terms of fast-tracking the planning process and attempting to ensure that land which hitherto was undeveloped would be developed in a proper manner and that people who won contracts to build fabulous buildings on those sites or adjoining them would provide jobs, interest and lots of good things. The only thing missing in the formula was accountability, which goes to the heart of the Bill.

What Deputy Hogan outlined is that the heart of that organisation and other organisations set up by the State on a semi-State basis must be accountable to the Comptroller and Auditor General. That means they must come before the Committee of Public Accounts and be questioned. It is certain that this process will take place and once it does not happen, as it did not in this case - it never will unless our Bill is passed - we will never get true accountability no matter what Professor Brennan does. If the strong arm of the law of the State in examining and considering the affairs of companies such as the Dublin Docklands Development Authority, namely, the Comptroller and Auditor General, is not part of the State or semi-State process, it is doomed to failure and to create waste.

I am appalled at the waste of money and the litany of abuse and possibly corruption that seems to be at the heart of what Deputy Hogan has outlined. I accept and acknowledge that the Minister will take the matter seriously, but he has to take it seriously enough. It is not good enough to say "Yes", he has to say what he will do about it, when he will act to tackle the Dublin Docklands Development Authority and other bodies such as CIE, a large quango that gets a subsidy of €323 million per annum to run its organisation. When CIE refused to give members of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport a copy of an audited report that identified serious abuses in a section of its organisation-----

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