Seán Kyne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will always try. I thank the Minister for bringing this important piece of legislation. It is hugely important for the running of all Departments for the year. If this was not passed, we can agree there would be consequences for the people we serve. Every citizen would suddenly realise the importance of government at large.

I refer to Vote 29, which is the salaries and expenses for the Office of the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, including certain payments administered by that office and for payments of certain grants. I refer in particular to one of the State agencies under the remit of that Department. That is Inland Fisheries Ireland, which I referred to on numerous occasions. I refer to the Committee of Public Accounts debate on Thursday 6 July this year, at which the Comptroller and Auditor General. Mr. Seamus McCarthy, was a witness. He stated:

I certified the 2021 financial statements on 29 March 2023 and issued a clear audit opinion. However, I drew attention to a number of items in my audit report. First, I drew attention to certain governance concerns ... A number of disclosures were made in 2022 to the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications and to IFI. These disclosures resulted in the commissioning of a succession of reviews and reports [which are ongoing and of which we await publication]. The statement on internal control outlines the status of these reviews at the date of signing of the financial statements. ... Finally, I drew attention to a change in the chief executive’s normal place of work from IFI’s headquarters in Donegal to the regional office in Ballyshannon in November 2021. This has implications for the claiming of expenses by the chief executive. We found no contemporaneous written record of the proposal for the work location change, or of its financial implications or of a decision in that regard by the board, which is responsible for setting the terms and conditions of the chief executive. The number and complexity of the issues that have arisen in IFI contributed to a delay in the completion of the audit of the 2021 annual financial statements. The audit of the 2022 annual financial statements is currently in progress and I expect earlier completion of that work. Separately, my office is further examining a number of control and value-for-money issues in IFI and I may present a report on any significant findings from that work, if that is warranted.

As Senators will know, I have raised matters pertaining to IFI on a number of occasions in my parliamentary party, but that statement on the goings-on in IFI was from the Comptroller and Auditor General regarding. The former chairman has written to question some of the comments and statements made by the CEO at the Committee of Public Accounts of the same date. He has written and I understand that correspondence has been put on the record by the Chairman of the committee. The IFI is subject to a rule that any capital expenditure of over €50,000 has to be approved by the board. This is not the overall package of capital expenditure but expenditure on each project. However, the CEO expended €219,000 of taxpayers' money on the project, which some would say was a dubious one, in Aasleagh in County Mayo without reference to the board, as required.