Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 127: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the basis on which she allocated funds to the various bodies under her remit; if such funds are allocated on the basis that she will be called upon to account for all expenditure; her views on whether it is good practice to create the impression that she will not at any time directly have to account for such sums in Dáil Éireann; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [45003/09]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 128: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the changes she plans to make to the funding of groups or bodies under the aegis of her Department whereby she would be accountable to the Houses of the Oireachtas thereby eliminating any possibility of overspend or lack of accountability; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [45004/09]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 129: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of bodies, groups or agencies which received direct funding from her Department for which she deems she is not accountable directly to the Houses of the Oireachtas; if she is satisfied that the totality of the sums involved represent good practice in terms of accountability on a day to day basis; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [45005/09]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 127 to 129, inclusive, together.

Funds are allocated to bodies, groups or agencies under the remit of my Department each year under the annual Estimates process. I present my Department's Estimate to the Select Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment and set out the allocations for each Agency operating under the aegis of my Department.

The Annual Output Statement for my Department, which is also presented to the Committee, outlines the key areas in which the funding will be spent. The Annual Output Statement includes specific targets to be achieved each year and reports on the progress in meeting the targets set for the previous year.

As I indicated in reply to PQ 41080/09 to Deputy Durkan on 18th November last, as Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, I am directly accountable to the Oireachtas for the activities of my Department and my Department's own expenditure decisions. In that regard, together with the Ministers of State assigned to the Department, I answer Parliamentary Questions, Adjournment Debates, etc, on our Departmental policies and strategies. I also present, as I have already mentioned, my Department's Annual Output Statement to the Select Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment each year.

Consistent with the duties and responsibilities assigned under the Ministers and Secretaries Acts, the Comptroller and Auditor General Acts and the Public Service Management Act, the Secretary General of the Department is the Accounting Officer and appears before the Public Accounts Committee to answer questions on the detail of the Department's expenditures. Furthermore, those expenditures are examined each year by the Comptroller and Auditor General, who publishes his findings, and whose report informs the annual PAC consideration of the Department's Appropriation Account.

In addition, a number of Agencies operate under the remit of my Department in supporting the development and delivery of our enterprise and labour market programmes in particular. The roles and responsibilities of these Agencies are set out in their establishment legislation, as amended from time to time. The chief officer of each Agency, and the chairman of each Agency Board, is directly accountable to the Oireachtas through our Committee system where they can be called to account for individual elements of Agency expenditures. It would, therefore, be inappropriate for me to answer for the day-to-day decisions and expenditures of the individual Agencies when Oireachtas members have such a direct facility to call to account the Heads of each Agency in relation to their stewardship of the Agency and the day-to-day expenditure decisions they take.

In addition to the Agencies and Offices under our remit and in direct receipt of funding from my Department, the Department and our Agencies would also provide funding to independent bodies such as the Crafts Council of Ireland and Skillnets to name just two. In all such cases, the awarding body, i.e. the Department or the Agency providing the funding, would be accountable for how it has overseen the funding so awarded and would be, in that regard, accountable to the Oireachtas in the manner I have set out above.

These systems of accountability to the Oireachtas, which are well-established over a long period of time, operate, I believe, in an manner that strikes the appropriate balance between the principle of democratic accountability by me as Minister and the demands on the Agencies to perform efficiently and effectively the functions for which they were established in their own right. They ensure that the Oireachtas can access all pertinent information on "day to day expenditure" directly from those who are immediately responsible for taking such decisions, while also holding Ministers directly accountable for overall policy decision or directions, thereby ensuring that the Oireachtas can superintend all Exchequer moneys invested by or under my Department.