Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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662. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the way in which the investigation by the local government auditor into payments made by Meath County Council to a company (details supplied) in 2008 and 2009 is progressing; if the investigation has established that payments made to this company should have been paid to another company for work it carried out for the council during the period in question; if it has established if Meath County Council continues to make payments to the company despite the fact that the issue of the previous incorrect payments to the company has not been addressed and may be the subject of a fresh Garda investigation; if Meath County Council was in breach of its legal and statutory obligations to inform the local government auditor when these payment discrepancies were uncovered further to complaints by a person several years ago; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48101/18]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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The function of the Local Government Audit Service is to complete the audits of all local authorities annual financial statements, using a structured audit methodology in accordance with the Code of Audit Practice and related guidelines. Local Government Auditors are independent in the performance of their duties and it is a matter for each auditor to decide what matters to review.  Any material matters arising would be referred to in the audit report and all audit reports are published on my Department’s website.

In relation to the matter in question, my Department has been informed that the Local Government Auditor is not undertaking an investigation into payments made by Meath County Council to any company in the years 2008 and 2009. 

The Local Government Auditor has however received correspondence from an interested party in relation to payments of approximately €16,000 made to the company in question in 2008 and 2009. A review of the payments was undertaken in 2018, as part of the 2017 audit.  The Local Government Auditor considered that the payments were not material in the overall context of the audit and, given the significant time delay since the payments were made, deemed that they were not relevant to the 2017 audit.