THE OIREACHTAS public accounts committee needs increased resources if it is to deal effectively with its workload in examining accountability in various State bodies and Government departments, its members said yesterday.
“There aren’t the resources there that we need,” Fine Gael TD and committee member Eoghan Murphy said at the launch of two reports by the committee.
“There is a lot coming in. People are demanding more from their public representatives . . . and rightly so, but it is also at a time where we have less resources and we try to manage it as best we can, but a committee as important as this doing its work week in week out does need more,” Mr Murphy said.
Chairman of the committee John McGuinness said he agreed the committee needed more resources to carry out its remit.
“We have increased the staff from three in support of the committee by one member and perhaps it is something the Government could look at in the context of the volume of work that we have to do in resourcing the committee much better, but we work with the Government in relation to that and we have received some positive responses,” Mr McGuinness said.
“In terms of numbers there’s 140 people employed in the CAG’s [Comptroller and Auditor General] office and yet those of us that are looking at public accounts and so on, there’s just [four] support staff. I would agree with Deputy Murphy that much more needs to be done in that area if we are to deliver on all of the work that is expected of us.”
He added that the committee would like to see the CAG’s powers extended to be able to examine the accounts at local government level, which would then bring it under the committee’s remit.
“When you look at accountability in local government it is an issue for us. We want to see the CAG empowered to look at local authorities because they do spend €5 billion a year that we can’t pursue, so we are anxious to deal in a comprehensive way, with the spending of taxpayers’ money regardless of where it goes.
“To that extent we would like to be empowered.”