John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

I do not think the Deputy can say that I am taking this matter lightly. He must remember that my Department commissioned this report and even though it came in at the lowest tender it is certainly a fair amount of money when one is talking about €545,000. In no way can the Deputy say that I am taking this lightly. I have clearly said that I have concerns about overspending, be it in capital projects or current spending. As well as taking this measure, the Deputy also knows that I have established an efficiency group to examine current spending. We discussed that matter the other day.

The Deputy has asked a number of questions about specific local authorities. I will get back to him in writing about them. If the Deputy provides specific questions, I will give him a breakdown. I will give him every answer that he is looking for in that regard. There is no difficulty there, although it will take some time to examine each and every local authority to see what is actually going on. In general terms, however, local authorities are responsible for an expenditure of approximately €11 billion. In looking at the national accounts, one must ask some searching questions. In my own backyard I have seen what happened concerning the waste treatment plant in Ringsend where I had to cough up a further €30 million because they got the contract arrangements wrong. This is of great concern to me and I share the Deputy's real concern about this matter. I will try to get back to him as quickly as possible on any of the questions he has on specific local authorities.

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