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

I will get those. From here on in, what happens? I hope the debate we have had today strengthens the committee. I do not see anything wrong with any of the things that have happened. It has been a good strong robust exchange. The members have proven to the public that regardless of whether one is a member of the committee, an Accounting Officer or a Secretary General, if one comes before the committee, one can expect to get what is a very direct, robust exchange of questions in the interest of the public and the detail required on whatever topic it might be. The members of the committee have proven that point today, in my opinion. I might not have liked it in terms of being the one who is sitting here, but an excellent job has been done.

I would be inclined to steer away from the political and get back to the point where it is the most important committee in the House. It is exercising that importance every week by scrutinising the Secretaries General and the Accounting Officers. It is not distracted in any way from its work. I admit this has been a distraction but not necessarily of my direct creation. I am happy to come to answer what needs to be answered. I have often had direct calls from senior civil servants and had an exchange with one of them over how the committee operates.

Let us bring down the tension a little bit at the end of this. I am as prepared as everyone around this table if Government, the Civil Service or any collective groups wants to say, "Look, we need to chat to you about how this thing is going because we believe it either could be done better or maybe you are going too far." Deputy Deasy told me that I was stepping across the line. There is no harm in having that conversation with people like that to establish if a direction needs to be taken and to re-establish the boundaries. That is fine. It is like having an opinion. Let us have a conversation about the opinion. That was part of our discussion today. I have no difficulty with that.

I firmly believe every member of this committee is as important as the next member. I just happen to be the Chairman and that is as much as I would like to say. I thank those who made their contributions and asked the questions.