The first hearings of the new Public Accounts Committee will examine recent spending controversies, particularly the €6.7 million spent by the Arts Council on a new IT system that was eventually abandoned.
John Brady of Sinn Féin was named on Friday as the new chairman of the powerful committee, which acts as the spending watchdog for public money. The Dáil committee has been traditionally chaired by a TD from the main Opposition party.
Mr Brady told The Irish Times that eliciting the facts on the Arts Council’s expenditure on the aborted IT system was an immediate priority for him, as was an examination of why the National Gallery let a scanner it bought for €125,000 lie idle for eight years.
The Wicklow TD also said that with RTÉ’s financial reporting coming under the remit of the Comptroller and Auditor General, the PAC would have a role in ensuring that its output and spending represented value for money for the taxpayer.
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He said he would need to get legal clarity on whether the PAC could examine a recent development, reported by The Irish Times, where it was disclosed that the broadcaster has paid €100,000 to comply with requests for personal data submitted by Ryan Tubridy and his agent Noel Kelly.
“Public confidence needs to be reinstated in RTÉ,” he said. “Headlines like that are not helpful.”
Mr Brady said he wanted to invite former minister for arts Catherine Martin and former chair of the Arts Council Prof Kevin Rafter to public hearings of the committee for a detailed examination of the circumstances surrounding how the IT system was abandoned.
“We really need to look at the absolute scandal of the expenditure of almost €7 million on an IT system that was not fit for purpose.
“There are clear issues of governance and other major issues there. We must allow the external inquiry into governance [being prepared by Prof Niamh Brennan], to complete its work.
“But the PAC needs to look at the major issues of concerns around governance, due diligence and everything else that was lacking. When did the line minister [Ms Martin] know? Was there communication with other senior cabinet colleagues? We know that, certainly, Ms Martin was well briefed on the issue a year ago.”
He also said that the fact the National Gallery’s scanner was bought in 2017 and never used “smacked” of a situation where nobody was in control.
Mr Brady said he was waiting to see the composition of the committee and was looking forward to the work ahead on a committee that, he said, generally operated on a collaborative basis.
“Unfortunately, accountability with public money is still lacking in a lot of areas,” he said.
“The committee needs focus and to be able to ask robust questions. A lot of issues have arisen since the election and I’m looking forward to the important work that we will do.”
