John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)

First, I thank all contributors, regardless of whether they spoke in favour of the Bill or against it. Such an exchange is healthy and often can result in a better Bill being decided on by the House. I am not disappointed for myself that the Government has not accepted this Bill. I am disappointed for the members of the Committee of Public Accounts, who repeatedly have expressed their interest in, and support for, achieving what is proposed in this Bill, not in their own interest but in that of good governance. This is what they sought as they simply wished to do their job by extending the committee's remit to cover local government audit and so on. They wished to ask the Minister whether he would insist that Accounting Officers be obliged to respond to the committee's requests, letters, correspondence or queries within 30 days. They simply asked that an annual report be debated by this House in order that each Accounting Officer and each citizen could be reminded on a yearly basis that the Committee of Public Accounts was doing its best on behalf of the people it represents and was determined to achieve value for money in every respect of the expenditure of the State.

The taxes collected from citizens are hard-earned but Members do not appear to have the bottle to ensure they are spent correctly in the interest of the people they serve. This is the disappointing part of this outcome as while I am not being party-political about this issue, the Government promised this would happen. Moreover, the words spoken by the Minister of State were not really her own. I know her and that speech was not her own. In response, I note there is no attempt to duplicate work. A total of 140 professional people are employed in the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General, while 40 are employed in local government. Were this scenario to obtain within a public limited company, the offices would be amalgamated immediately to bring about greater efficiency and a central effort to the work they were doing. This is what Ireland is doing outside the walls of Leinster House, where all businesses are downsizing and getting value for money for themselves. Although they all are doing so, the State believes, on taxpayers' money, it can simply continue with business as usual.

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