Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not have another question. During the first session we dealt with the matters at hand and we veered into other areas in the second session. As a Government party Deputy, I agree with my colleagues that I greatly value the independence of the Committee of Public Accounts. I think I speak for all members in saying that regardless of who appears before us, we are robust in our questioning, which is extremely important. The message needs to go out from this committee that, collectively as a group of Deputies, we value the independence of the Committee of Public Accounts and we value the work we do. Today was about the integrity of the Committee of Public Accounts itself in dealing with issues that came into the public domain. It is something about which I feel very strongly. I see the role of the Committee of Public Accounts as being very independent of Government and I have always operated in that way. The work we do bears that out. We have produced reports, including the banking report, that I believe everyone has fed into.

Nobody, including me, questions the Chairman's very good and ongoing role as Chair of the Committee of Public Accounts. This is about different issues. This is about the credibility of the Committee of Public Accounts itself, how we do our work and the distractions from that work with various issues. If the Chairman was in this position, I believe he would be doing likewise. He would not expect anything less because that is what we do in the Committee of Public Accounts.

In his closing remarks, I ask the Chairman to deal with the issue coming back in terms of the London trip but equally that he would reflect on what the Committee of Public Accounts is all about, the reasons we are here today and the legitimate questions that we have had to pose on behalf of the taxpayer. Regardless of how these have come into the public domain, questions have had to be posed. The Chairman spoke about being robust etc. People involved in the Committee of Public Accounts want to question. That is what we are here to do. It is never a personality issue. To put a positive note on our deliberations more recently, we are an independent committee, we do our work and we value our credibility. We are a robust committee and will continue to be a robust committee, and that is down to the members of the committee and the work we do. Mr. Matthew Elderfield will appear before the committee shortly and we will question him in a robust way on behalf of the taxpayer.

I ask the Chairman to make his concluding remarks, including undertakings to come back about the London trip and so forth.