Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his answer. It seems almost impossible to get at the information required. I think the Minister will agree that €6.2 billion of investment in the wastewater sector is very significant. I think he will also agree that given the fact the public is now bracing itself for the imposition of water charges, concerns are now heightened as to that scale of investment, where that liability will lie and, most crucially, an assurance that the choice of public private partnership for investment of that scale was the correct choice. A number of years ago a committee of this House recommended that the Comptroller and Auditor General should be able to report on these schemes in the wastewater treatment facilities but, unfortunately, the Comptroller and Auditor General is precluded from carrying out that investigation by law. We then had a situation where the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government and the Minister's Department were before the Committee of Public Accounts some months ago and, when questioned about value for money audits on this issue, they could not answer the questions and they passed the ball from one Department to the other.

While the Minister might not have the specifics on the wastewater treatment facilities with him today, I would like him to respond to me, perhaps in writing, on that issue. More specifically, will the Minister tell me with whom the buck stops in terms of carrying out these value for money audits? In which Department is it vested?

See this speech in context