Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There is nothing to prevent authorities from preparing and publishing their reports. The date in the legislation is just the outer limit. The Senator has claimed credit for adding the date of 30 June. As it has been included in all these Bills it can act like a little brass plate has been erected in his honour.

The legislation provides six months as an outer limit and does not, in any way, prevent bodies from reporting earlier. Of course the Competition Authority can issue reports of a policy nature on a continuous basis and its annual report is just a report of its activities, accounts and so on. A wealth of reports have gone into the Oireachtas Library in the past few days which in no doubt reflects the effectiveness of the publication date.

I will not accept the Senator's suggestion for an earlier date because I have not had a chance to consult the authorities involved to see if it constitutes a difficulty for them. In principle, we encourage early publication on occasion in the case of some of my own bodies. For example, our annual reports include final statements of employment and Enterprise Ireland and IDA companies look at their exports. They represent separate surveys. There are surveys that must be conducted by those bodies, after the end of the financial year, on their client companies. I refer to a separate operation after the end of the year and it is not just reporting of their own accounts. Time can be involved in assembling the sort of data one wants in a comprehensive annual report. I am not unsympathetic to the Senator's suggestion but six months is reasonable as an outer limit. I will revert to the Senator and give him a steer as to whether it is feasible, in the case of these bodies, to report on an earlier basis.