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

I will finish on this point and let the other members come in. The Chairman just acknowledged that at that time the economy was going down the tubes. If that was the context - we have to ask these questions for the ordinary people looking in at the Committee of Public Accounts - why did the Chairman put in a request, which based on the e-mails would appear to have been a reasonably persistent one, and write on 29 August a relatively lengthy and strongly worded letter and subsequently over a month later on 9 October or thereabouts request that his wife go on a trip to Canada with him when, as he said, the economy was going down the spout and the officials should have been dealing with far more important matters than e-mails from the Chairman? Why did the Chairman put them in the position where they felt it necessary to deal with him by way of e-mail?