John O'Donoghue (Kerry South, Fianna Fail)

The effect of this amendment would be to require the authority, under statute, to submit annual accounts for audit to the Comptroller and Auditor General not later than three months after the end of its financial year. While in practice it has been extremely rare for either Bord Fáilte or CERT to have been unable to submit their accounts within three months, it is possible, due to external factors such as a prolonged EU audit query, for example, that the authority might be unable to meet this deadline. Consequently, a six months period was proposed. The practice varies across State bodies. In many instances no deadline is set, as in the case of the Tourist Traffic Acts, the Air Navigation and Transport (Amendment) Act 1998, the Turf Development Act, 1998, and the Dublin Docklands Authority. In other cases, a three months period is set, as in the case of the Food Safety Authority and the Equality Authority. The specified period is six months in the case of national cultural institutions, the Irish horse racing authority and the Irish Sports Council.

I am aware of Senator Quinn's distinguished career as chairman of An Post and I do not wish to denigrate that contribution in any way. Accordingly, I have decided to accept his amendment.