Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)

I do not know if there is a question there. There is certainly a big statement, and I have addressed that statement previously with regard to the OPW. The Deputy will appreciate the Accounting Officer for the OPW came before the finance committee and the public accounts committee and laid out in real terms what happened with regard to the Office of Public Works. No more than I did not know what happened in RTÉ, I had no detail with regard to the OPW. I know this predates the Deputy, but significant time was spent questioning RTÉ officials in these Houses regarding its previous financial performances, the collapse of the licence fee and their contractual obligations as a broadcaster and everything else. This was never unearthed. The Deputy is right, and I appreciate that she has acknowledged that once I became Minister and realised there was a significant problem in the Arts Council and another in the National Gallery, I took it upon myself to ask if there were others. It is on that basis that I am addressing it. However, and I have addressed this issue previously, whether in the Department of Health, or with regard to expenditure in individual schools, in the Department of Education, Ministers cannot possibly be expected to know individual day-to-day expenditures. That is what Accounting Officers are for and that is why we have decision-makers in bodies. That is why I have taken it upon myself to ask those people responsible for this to come forward with explanations. That is what has happened in this case but I appreciate the comments the Deputy made at the start.

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