Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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556. To ask the Minister for Defence if he will set out in tabular form the names of all State owned or substantially State funded organisations under his Department whose latest accounts laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas are more than one year old, that is, relate to a period ending before May 2012 and more than two years old, that is, relate to a period ending before May 2011. [25019/13]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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The State Boards under the aegis of the Department of Defence when the Government took office were the Civil Defence Board, the Army Pensions Board and the Board of Coiste an Asgard. The Civil Defence Board was identified in the Public Service Reform Plan as a body to be abolished, and legislation was passed by the Oireachtas in December 2012 for the dissolution of the Board and the transfer of its functions back to the Department of Defence. The latest accounts laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas in respect of the Civil Defence Board relate to the year ended 31^st December 2011, and were laid before the Houses on 11^th December 2012. The Board's cessation accounts covering the period 1^st Jan 2012 - 31^st December 2012 are currently being prepared and will be laid before the Houses on completion of an audit by the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General.

The Army Pensions Board is an independent statutory body established under the Army Pensions Act, 1927. The Army Pensions Board does not produce accounts, and all expenditure is included in the Vote 35 Army Pensions Appropriation Account. In the context of settling the Estimates for the Department of Defence for 2010, the Government decided that the national sail training scheme operated by Coiste an Asgard would be discontinued as recommended in the Report of the Special Group on Public Service Numbers and Expenditure. The Directors' Report and Financial Statements for 18 months ending 30 June 2012 were laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas in January 2013. It was agreed with the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General that the 2011 accounts and the first six months of 2012 would be taken together as the final accounts given the very small number of transactions involved. The formal wind up of the Company including voluntary strike off with the Companies Registration Office was completed in early 2013.

In addition to the bodies under the aegis of my Department as outlined above, the Office of the Ombudsman for the Defence Forces and the Defence Forces Canteen Board are also required to lay accounts before the Houses of the Oireachtas.

The 2011 accounts of the Office of the Ombudsman for the Defence Forces were laid before the Houses on 24 April 2012.

The Defence Forces Canteen Board, which was established in 1944 in order to provide canteens for members of the Defence Forces, exercises supervisory and financial control over the operation of military messes throughout the Defence Forces. The accounts of the Defence Forces Canteen Board for 2011 were laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas in September 2012.