The Local Government Reform Act 2014, introduced by the Taoiseach's own party in Government, established the National Oversight and Audit Commission, NOAC, as an independent statutory body, to provide oversight of the local government structure in Ireland. Its functions involve scrutiny of performance generally and financial performance specifically. On 17 January last, the chair of NOAC, Mr. Michael McCarthy, told the Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage:

NOAC does not have a function of providing input to the development of policy for the sector. Furthermore, NOAC has no role in decisions around funding models or levels of funding for local authorities. As prescribed in the Act, NOAC does not apply sanctions, penalties or fines or examine individual cases. Rather, our role is to act as an oversight body. Most of the work of NOAC is carried out through its four working groups. These deal with local government governance, efficiency and reform, performance indicators, communications and customer survey, and financial management and performance.

However, a former member of NOAC stated:

NOAC is a complete joke,as I served on the NOAC Board, it became patently clear that the body had been neutralised from the off through a pincer movement by the Department, who had an assistant-sec on the Commission, and the CCMA, that’s the County & City Managers Assoc, representing the County Managers, who ensured there was No probing, no accountability, and no consequences.

The Taoiseach will have read the recent media reports from RTÉ's Paul Cunningham about the misclassification of employees at Dublin City Council. It is now emerging that a €20 million hole in the Dublin City Council finances will ensue. This may never have come to light were it not for Paul Cunningham, but has clearly been going on for years. Is it not fair to say that the public can have no confidence that local authorities are managing their spend correctly? That spend amounts to €6 billion of taxpayers' money spread across the 31 local authorities annually.

That is €6 billion. The entire structure of the local authorities needs to be reviewed. With a €6 billion spend, the State can ill afford to take a haphazard approach to governance and accountability. Does the Taoiseach agree it is time the responsibility for auditing local authorities was brought under the remit of the Comptroller and Auditor General? Will he tell the House he will ensure action is taken to safeguard the taxpayers' moneys?

I thank the Deputy. This is something I will have to discuss with the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell, and the Minister of Housing, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy O'Brien. Local authorities are principally accountable to their elected members. I believe in local government and do not like to see central government taking over local government. Sometimes that has had to happen and functions have had to be transferred from local government to central government, but it has never been something I have been particularly enthusiastic about, although it has been necessary in some instances. Ultimately, local authorities are accountable to the elected members. We have the National Oversight and Audit Committee, NOAC, which is chaired by former Deputy Michael McCarthy. It is an audit committee and an oversight committee and does valuable work.

I am not sure whether transferring oversight to the Comptroller and Auditor General is a good idea or not. That would bring local government into the realm of the Committee of Public Accounts, which is perhaps what the Deputy would like to see-----

Of course.

-----but again, that is central government beginning to take over local government and I am not sure that is the right approach. It is something I have an open mind on and something I will discuss with the Minister, Deputy O'Brien and the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell. Something I think we all agree on is that public money, the people's money, money paid by them in local property taxes and money paid by them in commercial rates, needs to be spent well and in the people's interests. There have been far too many stories of that not happening in counties around the country, unfortunately.

That is true and this is not the first time a local authority has been found wanting when it comes to the administration of its budgets as allocated by the Department of Housing, Heritage and Local Government. There is no oversight of spending and that is because nobody is answerable or accountable for the actions of the authorities. Similar shortcomings have been identified in recent times with Mayo County Council, where unjustifiable claims were made against the Department. NOAC, which is the body that has oversight of local authorities, is not accountable to anybody. Nor does it have the powers to ensure the local authorities are accountable to the taxpayer for the administration of their budgets, so the Taoiseach is dead right that the Committee of Public Accounts is where it is at. The Comptroller and Auditor General is independent of Government, and if the Taoiseach feels €6 billion worth of taxpayers' money is not worthy of the Committee of Public Accounts, I am not sure why we have the committee in the first place.

I again urge the Taoiseach to make local authorities accountable for their budgets. The Accounting Officers of the local authorities must be compelled to explain their actions in a public forum. In this regard, the Taoiseach must move immediately to disband NOAC and bring the local authorities under the remit of the Comptroller and Auditor General.

I firmly agree the people's money needs to be spent well, spent efficiently and spent in their interest. That is why it is important that we have audit and oversight functions that work. However, local government is separate from central government. Local government is now enshrined in our Constitution by means of an amendment passed by the public some years ago. While local authorities receive some of their grants directly from central government, they also receive funding from the local property tax, commercial rates-----

It is still taxpayers' money.

-----and from their own income. For an Oireachtas committee to start to take oversight of income that is local government income and not central government would have to be thought about, and thought about in depth.