John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Pending that response, I wish to say something, which I mean in a constructive way. I do not accept for one minute, as I said to Mr. Gaffey before, that the president of the Administrative Tribunal could not comment on the report as it was being presented to parliament around 30 November. This is a question of giving €37 million, and more at times, to a country. It is a substantial amount of that country's revenue. He should have acknowledged that he was speaking to this committee that is trying to get answers, yet he gave no answer. It was not because he was waiting to give the accounts to parliament. Neither was it a translation issue; he has perfect English. I came away from that meeting absolutely furious because of the fact that he was not clear and concise about his answer. Up to then, we had received clear and concise answers from everybody, including individuals who were not directly employed by the embassy. They were local, qualified people who were giving their own interpretation of how things could be done. In fact, one lady who was very well qualified and assisted in the audit process said we were asking things of Mozambique that we do not even do ourselves at home in the context of auditing. There was a fairly robust exchange about all of this stuff. They have an accountancy system out there that would be well used across Departments in Ireland. I am thinking particularly of the HSE. That is a fact - it is a very good system.

In responding, Mr. Cooney should bear all of that in mind. In spite of the good work that is being done on the ground, the recommendations on this will have to be direct because we must account for that money.