The Joint Committee on Finance and the Public Service should consult outside expertise from the Smurfit Business School or another academic establishment in its review of Government policy initiatives, Labour Party finance spokeswoman Joan Burton has proposed.

The committee is to examine the annual output statements that were provided by Government Ministers for the first time last year, but Ms Burton said yesterday that the new system was a fundamental change to public accounts procedures and would require expert analysis.

"My background is in accounting and I know enough to know that there is a lot here that I do not know," she said.

The aim of the statements is to improve transparency and value for money in public sector spending, and the first update on last year's statements is due shortly. But the statements, which set out what each department is to achieve with the public money granted to them, are "very challenging" to assess, Ms Burton told the committee.

"They say that this and this has been done, but it may be that the services on the ground are not as complete as the output summaries indicate," she said, citing the example of a statement on bus corridors that made no mention of the number of buses servicing the routes.

The committee, which is chaired by Fianna Fáil TD Michael Finneran, also heard yesterday from financial services ombudsman Joe Meade, who confirmed that he had written to Minister for Finance Brian Cowen in relation to his powers to order financial services firms to refund all customers affected by a particular problem, not just customers who complain to his office.

The possibility of consumers taking class actions has been referred to the review body that is consolidating all financial legislation.