Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I honestly do not know why it does not apply in this case but I will check that out and provide the Deputy with a more detailed reply. It may well be - I am only guessing - that the directive applies to bodies that are largely publicly funded whereas this is a body that receives only a small proportion of its funding from the Government. That is just my guess because that is often the way European directives work. They apply to largely or majority funded bodies, not ones that only receive a portion of their funding from the State. As I said, I will check it out. I will ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform to examine the wider issue that if public money is provided through a third party to voluntary bodies, charities or NGOs, surely it is appropriate that they are properly audited and rotate their auditors. A bit like the FAI, it would be appropriate that they should rotate their leadership, chairman and board members and not have the same people in charge for ten, 20 or 30 years, which is just bad corporate governance practice, as, I think, we will all agree.

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