Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am fully with Deputy Nolan's remarks. I found part of this process useful and the other section is as clear as mud and has created more issues, I am afraid to say. It is very damaging that any inference would go out - and that impression was being tried to be created - that Deputies who happen to members of Government parties are somehow being got at by Ministers. We all know and accept how the business of this committee should be conducted. If I were ever approached by a Minister on a certain PAC issue or how I should conduct myself on the PAC, I would resign from this committee and have nothing more to do with it. I would have a serious issue with that. I think I can speak for my own party colleagues. That view taken in the last few minutes has been really unhelpful and is being used as a deliberate distraction from the real issues. It is very damaging. For those who talk about the credibility of the committee and their presence here being about trying to re-establish that credibility, efforts to do that have undermined it further.