Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 20 December 2012

Public Accounts Committee

2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 19 - Official Development Assistance
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade
Vote 29 - International Co-operation

11:10 am

Photo of Simon HarrisSimon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I say this to be constructive. The people whom I meet detest, and what I personally detest is, the use of the phrase "systemic failure". Apparently "systemic failure" ruined this country. Individuals are involved. People make decisions. People are paid to manage. Structures are put in place and people are paid to oversee those structures.

The witnesses may not be able to answer this question today, and that is fine, but I want to know if Mr. Cooney is satisfied, based on the correspondence from ambassadors, that a similar situation is unlikely to happen in other countries in so far as he can be sure that it will not happen. If Mr. Cooney is sure and the embassies are following the same structures and systems as the embassy in Uganda was meant to follow, surely the logical conclusion is that at some point, somebody in our embassy did not comply with the systems that Irish Aid had put in place.

Comments

No comments

Log in or join to post a public comment.