Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 383: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs the membership of his Department's audit committee; the chairperson and the number of occasions on which it has met in the past 12 months and the agenda of the meetings. [32563/05]

Conor Lenihan (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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An independent audit committee was established in the Department of Foreign Affairs in November 2003. The members are: John Gerard O'Connor, chairperson, John S. Pittock, John A. Jackson and Valerie Little. The committee held the following meetings from November 2004 to November 2005: In 2004 on 17 and 29 November and 17 December; in 2005 on 28 January, 1 and 18 March, 14 April, 6 May, 9 June, 7 July, and 2 November. The agenda of the committee meetings during the last 12 months included meetings with the office of the Auditor General, staff of the Department, meetings on the Department's internal audit charter, the merger of two audit units within the Department, evaluation and audit work plans, the preparation of audit committee annual report, decentralisation, visits by committee members to missions abroad, expansion of the aid programme, and specific reports laid before the committee by the Department. In September 2005, the audit committee published its annual report for 2004, a copy of which is available in the Oireachtas Library.