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

We are here to extract the detail of the payment from the witness. I have not asked for the name of the contractor or anybody else. We are discussing the principle of paying somebody €80,000 at the end of their contract when it would have apparently cost substantially less to let the contract run out. There could not have been a legal dispute at the end of a contract if it had been fulfilled by both sides and came to a natural end after five years. That is the only point I am making. Our job is not to make arrangements with the Comptroller and Auditor General, and he did not tell me about it. I am acting on the information before me, which is that the money has been paid. I am asking why this happened and it seems there is an unsatisfactory response in that the contractor was paid off towards the end of a contract. That is the essence of the issue. Mr. Guiomard seems very decent and he paid €16,000 to employees at his own discretion.