Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Other people who have appeared before this committee have made that very point. The Deputy was not an innocent bystander. He made the decisions, which we will get to later. This is not about the Deputy's wife; rather, it is about the Deputy and his public office. The only reference to the Deputy's wife is in relation to that. The Deputy is the one who made the decision that his wife was to travel at a cost to the taxpayer. It was the Deputy who made that decision. The civil servant did not tell the Deputy, then Minister of State, that he had to bring his wife or that he had to fly business class. The Deputy made those decisions.

Other people who appear before the Committee of Public Accounts also make similar decisions. In my time as a member of this committee, which is not as lengthy as that of Deputy McGuinness, I have rarely, if ever, come across a person sitting on that side of the room who had broken a rule or not operated within guidelines. Generally, they have. However, the Deputy, as Chairman of this committee, and the committee collectively, has been critical of their not questioning or probing issues. The committee has produced pretty hard hitting conclusions in such situations. That is what is at issue for me. I am not asking the Deputy to answer for Rody Molloy or anybody else. I am only using him as an example in terms of the level of account to which the Deputy, as Chairman of this committee, has held people and the level he now wishes us to hold him to.