Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

Under this section, accountability relates to accountability to the Committee of Public Accounts, established for the purpose of examining public accounts. Section 20 states: "The chief executive officer is the accounting officer in relation to the appropriation accounts of the Executive for the purposes of the Comptroller and Auditor General Acts 1866 to 1998." The decision of the Government to so provide is the most fundamental feature of the Bill. Senator Henry rightly pointed to the expenditure on the health and social services, which represents a very substantial portion of the gross domestic product of the State.

The chief executive officer will attend meetings of the Committee of Public Accounts and hold himself or herself responsible for expenditure in this entire area. That represents a very fundamental change in this legislation. The Accounting Officer, rather than the Secretary General of the Department, will be the chief executive officer of the executive. This imposes discipline on the chief executive, which discipline is codified and set out in the Comptroller and Auditor General Acts 1866 to 1998. The Oireachtas, in enacting section 20, will include the chief executive officer into that well-established framework.

While I understand the motivation of Senator Browne, who moved this amendment, and of the other Senators who spoke thereon, my advice from the Attorney General is that it is not legally necessary. Once we include in section 20 the basic provision that the chief executive officer is the Accounting Officer, this will invoke the relevant sections of the Comptroller and Auditor General Acts. The advice we received from the Attorney General is that by designating the chief executive officer as an Accounting Officer, he or she will be obliged to attend a meeting of the Committee of Public Accounts. Given that the discipline of an Accounting Officer is so well established in our administrative practice and that the legal responsibilities are spelt out with great clarity, it is unnecessary and would be confusing to insert a further section in the Bill spelling out his or her duties. The functions of the Accounting Officer of the executive are no different from those of any other Accounting Officer in the public service, therefore, I am not prepared to accept the amendment even though I understand the spirit in which it was moved. I assure Senator Browne that his proposal is accounted for in the other Acts to which I referred.