Mary O'Rourke (Fianna Fail)

That is right.

Senator O'Toole also said a Minister should be responsible even where he or she is not always accountable. The failure by some Departments to draw down allocated moneys is extraordinary. I got caught once on that, in my first year as Minister for Education, but I never got caught again. Every three months I would ask the Secretary General of the Department for an update on expenditure. It was the only way to keep track of it and I never returned another penny to the Department of Finance.