This motion is concerned with allowing the committee on commercial State enterprises to investigate the activities of Údarás na Gaeltachta, which is not a commercial State body. It is a body which administers grants on behalf of the State and does not purport to make a profit. I have been seeking at every available opportunity, both in Opposition and in Government, so far without success, to have a committee on non-commercial State bodies established. There are approximately 60 such bodies spending between them between £800 million and £1,000 million. Údarás na Gaeltachta is only one of these bodies and it is only because certain allegations have been made that some of that money, a relatively small amount of the total spent by non-commercial State bodies, has been mis-spent that it is now being decided that the remit of the committee on commercial State bodies should be somewhat artificially extended to encompass Údarás na Gaeltachta.
When dealing with a motion to establish the Joint Committee on State-Sponsored bodies, I raised the need to establish another committee to deal with the activities of the non-commercial State bodies who cannot be questioned by way of parliamentary question about the money they are spending because the Minister claims he has no direct responsibility. If such a committee were in existence it would be a much more appropriate vehicle to investigate Údarás na Gaeltachta than a committee concerned with commercial State bodies.
It might be said that the problems, if problems they are, in relation to Údarás na Gaeltachta would not have arisen in the first place if there had been a committee supervising them during the past five or six years. Many problems have arisen in the non-commercial State bodies because of lack of proper supervision by the Oireachtas. Many complaints are made about civil service interference but if such interference and political direction from this House saves State funds from being misappropriated, it is eminently justifiable.
A committee should be established to investigate in an on-going way the non-commercial State bodies. I pressed the Taoiseach hard on this issue when the other committee was being established and he indicated that he was favourably disposed to this suggestion but did not give any specific commitment. This is the first and very apt opportunity of raising the matter again. I hoped that either the Minister for the Gaeltacht or the Minister for Finance, who is more au fait with the general supervision of State spending, would indicate whether and when a committee on non-commercial semi-State bodies would be established. If such a supervisory mechanism existed some of the problems which may exist in regard to Údarás na Gaeltachta may not have arisen or some of the allegations made about Údarás na Gaeltachta may not have been made because there would have been a mechanism to have the problems investigated. I hope that the Ministers will be able to indicate some further progression in the Government's consideration of this matter and that they will confirm that such a joint committee will be established.
