Senior officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Office of Public Works (OPW) will be called before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to answer questions on the funding that they provide to the Office of the President.

PAC chairman Sean Fleming will propose holding a special committee hearing to discuss the millions of euro of taxpayer funding provided to Aras an Uachtarain when the Dail returns next month.

Mr Fleming is anxious to ensure that committee members can question senior officials on how more than €55m of taxpayer funding was spent by the Office of the President during Michael D Higgins's tenure before the next presidential election is held in October.

Department of the Taoiseach secretary general Martin Fraser will be the main witness during the hearings. But it is expected that senior officials from the OPW, the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Office of the President will also be asked to attend.

In recent months, officials in the Department of Foreign Affairs and the President's Office have been reluctant to provide details on how millions of euro of taxpayers' money has been spent.

The Presidency is exempt from Freedom of Information legislation and the public is not entitled to know exactly how their money is being spent by Aras an Uachtarain.

There have been an increasing number of calls for the legislation to be extend to the Presidency.

The Sunday Independent revealed last weekend that the President's Office received €23m of services from other State agencies between 2012 and 2016. More than €1.6m of the Department of Foreign Affairs' budget was allocated to the Office of the President in this period.

The OPW is listed as providing the Aras with more than €11m of what is described as 'allied services expenditure'.

The Department of Finance provided the Presidency with €147,000 of services.

The figures from Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) reports show that An Garda Siochana has spent at least €1.1m on providing security services to Mr Higgins since he took office, while the Defence Forces spent €2m.

A central function of the PAC is to examine the annual reports of the C&AG and it is on this basis that Mr Fleming will propose holding a special hearing on the presidency.

Once the Dail returns in September, Mr Fleming will seek approval from members to invite senior officials before the committee.

Before they attend, Mr Fraser and other civil servants will be asked to provide additional details of how State funding is spent by the presidency.

It is expected that the Department of Foreign Affairs will be asked to provide details of how millions of euro is spent on the President's State visits to other countries.

It is understood that An Garda Siochana and the Defence Forces will not be asked to send representatives to the PAC meeting.

Mr Higgins has not publicly discussed how his office spends taxpayers' money but he has said he would be happy to sign legislation which would bring the Presidency under Freedom of Information legislation.

Sunday Independent