Feargal Quinn (Independent)

The Minister for Finance has created a commission of investigation into the advice given in banking in recent years. I draw his attention to an effort being made in Britain to copy the American Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act 2006. This Act has led to creation of a website in which any expenditure above $25,000 by the Federal Government in the United States and a number of states is open to the public at no cost. In an age of transparency, this is the sort of thing we should examine. The British effort will require the Treasury to create a government expenditure website as well as giving the British Government the power to extend it to other public sector bodies. This seems to be a perfect way to ensure the citizens know what the Government spends. We are not talking about every penny; it is only for anything above $25,000 in the United States. The cost of putting this into operation in the United States was $1 million for the Federal Government, while it only cost $25,000 for some states such as Missouri.

This is something towards which the Minister should work. Instead of having investigations into what happened in the past, we would all be able to watch this. We could have pie charts and bar charts and we would be able to see exactly what type of Government expenditure is taking place. There will be no enthusiasm for this inside the public sector, but it is something the citizens would welcome and is something that would benefit all of us involved in trying to control public expenditure.