Vol. 419 No. 7
4 Mr. J. Higgins asked the Minister for Education the action he is taking in the light of the observations and recommendations contained in the Committee of Public Accounts First Interim Report on the 1990 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General on the purchase of Carysfort College by UCD, and if he will make a statement on the matter.
I believe the report, with evidence, is currently being printed. The Deputy should be aware of the procedure on this issue.
After laying it before the Dáil, the Committee of Public Accounts formally request a response from the Accounting Officer if Secretary of the Department of Finance. He consults with the other Departments involved and prepares a response. The procedure is set out in the extract from Public Financial Procedures: An Outline.
The Committee of Public Accounts secretariat have confirmed that they have not formally requested a response from Department of Finance and will not be doing so for a fortnight or so. At that time my Department will formally receive a copy, will study it carefully and will respond to Department of Finance, as laid down in the procedures which I understand have been agreed by all parties in this House.
Does the Minister not realise that the contents of this document are widely known? Would he not agree that it is a fairly damning indictment of the procedures followed by his Department? For example, it was suggested that there was a serious omission by the Department of Education in not notifying University College, Dublin, of the £3.8 million valuation and a serious error of judgment in not obtaining a new valuation in December 1990; that the value for money exercise carried out by his Department is not sufficient; that the Department of Finance should have been consulted? Would he not agree there are basic procedural details there requiring immediate addressing? Has the Minister discussed this matter with the chief accounting officer or are moves underway to endeavour to safeguard the public purse, which did not happen in this context?
I want to make it clear that I will allow nothing to be hidden in regard to this issue. I am bound by the procedures laid down by the Committee of Public Accounts. I propose to follow those procedures which means that, when the Department of Finance formally seek a response from me, they will receive a very full response. They will then report to the Committee of Public Accounts who can then seek, if they wish, a full debate in this House on the entire issue. I should reiterate that as Minister for Education I will permit nothing to be hidden in regard to this entire matter. I will respond fully and comprehensively at the appropriate time to every question put to me on this matter.
I thank the Minister for his assurance in that regard. It is in the public interest that that be the case. Is the Minister committed to the incremental running costs agreed by the then Taoiseach with the imprimatur of the then Minister for Education on an ongoing basis of the Smurfit Graduate Business School, formerly Carysfort Training College?
I have not yet had an opportunity to address or consider that question. I am bound to stand over what is in my departmental Estimates and what has been agreed in regard to them. I have not yet actually had an opportunity to examine that aspect of the matter.
