Ms Emily O'Reilly:

Welcome to my world. Sometimes we get involved in issues with Departments or public bodies and we know it is a long play and that one might get slapped back at the beginning but that over time, one will win the war. I stated my disappointment at what had happened before in respect of the committee. There were a few other incidents that took place during the last Administration which could have had a detrimental effect on the ability of my office to work effectively on behalf of the people of this country. One of them was the Lost at Sea report, which we will certainly not revisit during this meeting. A committee again split on party political lines, agreed with the Department and that was it. The fallout from that in terms of conversations in the media and among parliamentarians and political parties and comments I made at the time about the proper relationship and power balance between the Executive, Parliament and committees such as this one fed into a wider debate which informed some of the thinking of many political parties during the election. As a result of that, we have had a number of major changes. At last, the Ombudsman (Amendment) Act was passed and the FOI legislation is coming through. For the first time, I have, as Ombudsman, a dedicated committee, namely, the Oireachtas Committee on Investigations, Oversight and Petitions. I submit that all this stemmed from the fallout from either the issue I had with this committee or the other ones. It engaged the political and public mind and, over time, had an excellent result.

Obviously I have had to deal with setbacks, but I used every occasion to name what is going on and to say that it was not a kick at me but a kick at Parliament or the people. It is down to Parliament, as the custodian of all this, to decide what it is going to do about it. I play my part and then step back. It is a matter for others to step up to the plate.