Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy has asked a good question. It is, of course, within the remit of the Comptroller and Auditor General to review these Estimates. We have no difficulty with that and we would welcome it. The Comptroller and Auditor General reviews all Government expenditure, both by Departments and by Government agencies. In the case of the Department of the Taoiseach, there are different Votes, including for the Chief State Solicitor's office, the Central Statistics Office and the Office of the President. It is a smaller Department in terms of overall public expenditure and I think it is fair to say there is good value in terms of how it spends its money. This has been an exceptional year because of the Covid-19 crisis. As I said, evaluating the cost of the communications response and so on is something that will happen in the course of time.

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