“Human error on behalf of one individual” and an entire system that allows such a weak point.

Incredible that he believes this excuse is acceptable.

Anyone else see the irony of the agency in charge of statistics (i.e., numbers and stuff) being so instrumental in such a balls up?!

So the Department have ignored the PAC on 22 occasions. This latest inquiry will be worth it then. Shame really, our TD’s are very good at doing their sums – look at how good they are at maximising their expemse claims.
Still, to paraphrase a previous correspondent, it will do the clowns no harm to try and get some response from the circus.

22 recommendations last year?
Is Mr McGuinness querying the ability of the late Mr Lenihan?
Or have I completely missed the point (high likelihood)?

I’d say that tails are up something mighty in the DoF since EU/ECB/IMF people have taken up desks in there. One can only imagine the daily meetings where something odd is pointed out, excuses are fumbled for, conclusions are drawn and the civil servants of the department – previously lords of all they surveyed – scuttle away to the kettle for a tea break and acerbic words about the way things are changing.

The DoF presided over our economic collapse and did nothing. It didn’t see fit to try and regulate our banks. It can’t add up its sums, and it has clearly very poor management controls. The whole place should be cleared out of the arrogant suits who, prior to the bailout, probably thought of themselves as the creme de la creme of Irish brains.

When the IMF, the EU and the ECB go home our old political parties and our old civil servants will happily slip back into their old ways.

can anyone work out the compound interest on this one, or would this be like borrowing 7million from one bank to put into another for tax/end of term reasons… someone has to do jail time or large fines for messing this up to that amount.

Each Euro coin weighs 7.5g. It would take 1,350 trucks, each laden with 20t of euro coins to get lost to highlight this paper error. Surely a good case to abolish electronic banking.

I don’t suppose there’s any chance that the entire sorry mess can be put down to an ‘accounting error’ or the part of a few individuals who were supposed to know what they were doing?

Seeing as how this amount was “lost” or “misplaced” and did not figure in the financial plans of the government who were going ahead to bring in their budget reforms without knowing about it anyway.

Could this money not go towards job creation or job retention in the country now that it has been found down the back of the cabinet!!??

Instead they turn round and say that it didn’t make much difference anyway!! €3.6BILLION doesn’t make a difference!!!