In relation to the audit work, one of the points that I would like to raise is as to how this £1,152,000 is paid over to the British. I do not want to misstate the position, but I think it is the case that the British Paymaster-General requisitions this sum in the first instance. If that is the position then I think it is a rather extraordinary thing that the party to this transaction who makes the requisition in the first instance and who spends the money should also audit the expenditure. It would seem to me that that affords very little protection to the people of this State. I think that £575 is very ill-spent money. It really affords us no protection. I say, at any rate, that in an ordinary commercial transaction no person would dream of permitting a man who requisitions money in the first instance and expends it in the second to audit it in the third. There does not seem to be any real check throughout the whole of that system. I am glad to learn that last year there was actually an audit of these pensions carried out by independent Irish auditors who are responsible to this House. I hope that the audit was satisfactory. I do not think, in view of the fact that we have the right to audit these accounts and in view of the fact that, in my opinion, an audit by the British Government gives no real protection, we would be justified in spending this £575. The Minister has made the case that in relation to sums disbursed in this country by his Department on behalf of the British Government they accept the certificate of our Comptroller and Auditor-General, but there is no comparison between the two sums. We do not spend £1,000,000 for the British Government in this country. I do not believe that we disburse anything with the exception of the amount that is voted for war graves under Miscellaneous Services. The only person who can audit these accounts on behalf of the Free State is the Comptroller and Auditor-General appointed by this House and responsible to this House. To justify the unaudited expenditure of £1,150,000 of the people's money—and that is what it amounts to—by saying that we disburse a comparatively trivial sum of something like £10,000 and that the British accept the certificate of our Comptroller and Auditor-General is, to my mind, no justification for the procedure that has grown up in regard to this matter. We are entirely suspicious of the whole way in which these R.I.C. pensions are disbursed. It seems to be a most extraordinary position that the Government have taken up in the matter. I could understand if they were to come here and say, "We feel that we are under no obligation in this matter——
