Feargal Quinn (Independent)

I thank the Minister for accepting the principle of the point I made which was, as he recognised, about good practice. It is good business practice and I love to see that practice initiated into all legislation in order that State companies have the same practice that is commonplace elsewhere. I accept the textual change to read "six months". I put down "four months" in the hope of being able to achieve it because we would like to see that improvement over the years but I accept entirely what the Minister said. He has taken the concept towards which I aimed.

I would love to see this period shortened as time goes on and to set a marker that whenever a Bill is drafted for a new State institution that this period would become progressively earlier. The large banks publish their accounts within days of the end of the year and some of the largest multinational companies publish theirs on a quarterly basis. It is possible to achieve better than we have done in the past and this is a considerable improvement.

As an example of what I have in mind, which I touched on briefly on Committee Stage, when I was chairman of An Post, we did our best to hand the accounts to the Minister in question and to the Comptroller and Auditor General within three months. Sometimes the Minister was tempted to sit on them for some time, although obviously that was not the present Minister. My aim in asking for four months was to achieve that timeframe. I am happy the Minister has taken on board the point and I believe we will benefit as a nation by having better standards in State companies.