PAC | The watchdog at work

On 12 January 1923, the Comptroller and Auditor General Act 1923 enshrined the duty of the C&AG to report to Dáil Éireann in the Statute Book.

This gave practical effect to Article 61 of the new Constitution, which provided for a new body to control all disbursements and to audit all accounts of moneys administered by or under the authority of the Oireachtas, and to report to Dáil Eireann at stated periods determined by law.

The first C&AG, George McGrath, was appointed on the passing of the new Act. He would serve in the role for 21 years.

In March 1924, following the completion of the first report of the C&AG on accounts concerning the financial year 1922-23, Dáil Éireann established the first Committee of Public Accounts, with nine members.

In April 1924, Deputies Thomas Johnson and Daniel Morrissey (Labour), Richard Wilson and Conor Hogan (Farmers’ Party), Patrick Joseph Egan, Michael Joseph Hennessy, Thomas O'Mahony and Daniel MacCarthy (Cumann na nGaedheal) and William Hewat (Business and Professional Group) were appointed to the nascent committee. 

Initially, the membership of the PAC changed every year.

The PAC published its first interim report in June 1924, which covered only the appropriation accounts of the Tailteann Games, a sporting event designed to promote Irish culture in the aftermath of independence.

The PAC’s first final report was not published until April 1925. It had taken considerable time to review the Army accounts, which were in disarray after the Civil War.

On 25 May 1928 a report of the PAC was debated in the Dáil for the first time, with William Davin moving a motion to the effect:

I move "that the Report of the Committee of Public Accounts, dated 29th February 1928, which has been printed and circulated, be now considered."

In 1931 the PAC gained its first female member.

Deputy Margaret Collins-O’Driscoll was an elected Member of several Dáileanna but she was the only female TD in the Sixth Dáil when she was appointed a member of PAC to examine the accounts for the financial year 1929-1930.

Elected with 2,715 first-preference votes, she was a sister to Michael Collins.

By 1938, PAC Cathaoirleach James Dillon noted in a meeting of the Finance Committee that "it has now become fashionable not to discuss the report of the Public Accounts Committee at all".

On Friday 27 April 1945, Deputy Dillon moved the Report of the Public Accounts Committee be laid. He then resigned as Cathaoirleach of the PAC, having held the position since 1938, saying:

I understand that this is the seventh occasion upon which I have moved that motion in this House, which is a record for the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee. Having established that record, I take graceful leave of the Committee, to which I do not propose to return.

Following his resignation as Cathaoirleach of the Committee, during a debate on the National Stud Bill in July 1945, Deputy James Dillon stated:

For the past 13 years, the Reports of the Public Accounts Committee have been sober, unemotional and unsensational documents. […] There have been occasions on which the committee differed from the Minister for Finance, each Party adhering to its own view. But on no occasion was any extravagant or wild allegation made.

Membership of the PAC was extended from 12 to 14 to give due representation to all parties.

In the 1966-67 C&AG report, it was noted that the Accounting Officer for the Justice Vote refused to make available a number of files that the C&AG required for his audit, despite the C&AG having a right of access to the information

This principle was significant, and the interim report on the matter stated:

The Committee is of opinion (1) that the proper discharge of the duty placed on the Comptroller and Auditor General by Article 33.1 of the Constitution, viz. to audit all accounts of moneys administered by or under the authority of the Oireachtas, requires that such documents as he determines to be necessary for the carrying out of this duty should be made available to him by Accounting Officers

On 23 December 1970, the Committee of Public Accounts of Dáil Éireann (Privilege and Procedure) Act 1970 was passed, giving the PAC the power to summon a witness and to bestow the immunities and privileges as if they were a witness before the High Court. 

The Act was challenged in 1971 after the PAC conducted an inquiry into whether public funds were used to purchase arms for the provisional IRA.

Having been convicted under the Act and sentenced to serve six months in prison, Mr. Seán Haughey appealed and ultimately, the Supreme Court held that it was not constitutionally permissible for the Oireachtas to try someone for a criminal offence, a power reserved to the courts under Articles 34 and 38 of the Constitution.

The PAC published a special report which, among other things, recommended that "a more structured approach to value for money audit" should be taken to include "matters relating to effectiveness as well as economy and efficiency" of spending.

It did note that this should not be "to the extent of questioning the merits of policy objectives".

The Comptroller and Auditor General (Amendment) Act of 1993 would grant the C&AG the right to examine and report on the efficiency with which public moneys are spent and how effectiveness is evaluated. Since 2020, the PAC’s role now includes ensuring that "public services are run efficiently and achieve value for money".

After reports emerged of financial institutions using bogus non-resident accounts as a means to avoid paying Deposit Interest Retention Tax (DIRT), with the possible knowledge of the Revenue Commissioners, the PAC recommended that the C&AG conduct an inquiry.

A special sub-committee of the PAC was established to focus on this report and it sat for six weeks from 31 August 1999, calling 142 witnesses, with a final report published in 2001.

The DIRT inquiry was very successful. While it cost in the region of £2.4 million to run, it recouped £352 million in outstanding taxes. The work of the DIRT inquiry was broadcast live by TG4 and attracted much public attention.

On 5 July 2012, the PAC published a preliminary report outlining a framework for what would become the 2014 banking inquiry, titled Report on the crisis in the domestic banking sector: A preliminary analysis and a framework for a banking inquiry.

The report recommended an "inquire, record and report" model where findings of fact or culpability would not be made, but where the causes of the collapse and the steps that should have been taken to prevent the crisis would be discussed.

Following her highly publicised appearance before the PAC in February 2014, Ms Angela Kerins, then CEO of the Rehab Group, initiated judicial review proceedings alleging, inter alia, breaches of her constitutional rights arising from her treatment as a witness before the PAC. 

Although Ms Kerins was unsuccessful in High Court proceedings, she prevailed on appeal to the Supreme Court, which held that while the utterances of members and witnesses were protected by parliamentary privilege, the actions of a committee as a whole could, in certain limited circumstances, be subject to judicial scrutiny. It further declared that the PAC had acted unlawfully by conducting its hearing in a manner significantly outside its terms of reference and the terms of Ms Kerins’ invitation. As a consequence of this judgment, in 2019, the Oireachtas introduced a system of reform, including the introduction of remedies for witnesses who believe they have been adversely affected by the actions of a committee and the establishment of a Committee on Remit Oversight to monitor compliance with Committee remit.

In June 2014, the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) sold its Northern Ireland portfolio of remaining loans in a single lot to Cerberus Capital Management. The transaction was codenamed Project Eagle.

The C&AG investigated the sale and found that it resulted in a €220 million loss to the taxpayer.

The report also raised concerns as to why NAMA diverged from normal procedures in selling the loan book. The PAC heard 57 hours of testimony and concluded its report on 13 March 2017. A commission of investigation into NAMA's sale of Project Eagle was subsequently set up. 

In June 2023, RTÉ announced that it had understated the remuneration of one of its TV and radio presenters for the period between 2017 and 2022. PAC applied for and was granted an extension to its remit to conduct an inquiry into RTÉ's expenditure and commercial arrangements entered into by the broadcaster and its presenters in the period.

The Committee published the report on its examination of RTÉ on 5 March 2024.

Almost a century after it appointed its first female member of the Committee, the PAC appointed Deputy Mairéad Farrell of Sinn Féin as the first female Cathaoirleach of PAC on 22 October 2024