Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State's response, to some extent. This is really unfortunate in the context of the valuable work that the organisation does, and we all wish it well as it faces fairly major challenges. The public, both North and South of the Border, want to be absolutely certain that every cent of public money being devoted to causes such as these is being properly expended, with proper approvals in place. The difficulty is that it appears the agency spent £126,000 on rent and service charges for its Great Victoria Street offices in Belfast city centre without getting formal business approval. In addition, the audit revealed that £176,000 was paid in 2009 and 2010 for the production and distribution of the agency's newspaper, The Ulster-Scot, again without the proper procedures being in place. The Minister of State told us the publication of the annual accounts was a complex issue, but we have not seen accounts since 2010. It is time, irrespective of the complexity of the issue, for the accounts to be published and dealt with in a normal and transparent manner, as is expected of these bodies.

See this speech in context