Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Before I put the question, I would like to contribute to this debate. I find it regrettable that we are back here this afternoon. Having listened to the tapes, I have reaffirmed my interpretation of what happened in private session. At last week's select committee meeting, different people put a different interpretation on what was agreed. We are here this afternoon to clarify the interpretation of that first meeting. It has been mentioned that committees in other jurisdictions have compiled their own reports. They have done so for their own reasons, in particular, their own national reasons. Any work that will be done by this committee will be done for our own reasons. We will not react in a crisis-driven way to reports coming out of other jurisdictions. Our work will suit our purpose.

I can summarise what was agreed the first time we discussed this in private session by referring to a point I made on that occasion. If one wants to discuss the offside rule because there are accusations that companies are playing offside, one should bring in FIFA and UEFA rather than Manchester United or Chelsea. That was the point I made at the time. However, the purpose of this meeting is to clarify what the select committee should do. We are back here this afternoon on that basis. We have covered this issue at length. We are all very busy. I am busy and my colleagues are busy. There is a certain level of frustration about the downtime, as I call it, which is involved in having to go over background work that has been done already. This work was done and agreed, but we are back here this evening to clarify it. On that basis, we need to give final and utter clarification on the work of the select committee. In keeping with Standing Orders, I propose that Deputy Dara Murphy's amendment to Deputy Pearse Doherty's motion be agreed. Is that agreed? I believe the motion has been carried.