Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate that. Mr. O'Toole has appeared before the committee previously and we have pored over the entrails of FÁS and the controversies therein. I am not questioning his position in that respect. However, I do not believe one can create this new culture if there is what amounts institutional amnesia. We all understand that people come and go and people retire, and when one is newly arrived in a position one cannot have immediate access to the fine detail. However, on any matter, and I am choosing this specific example, there must be a paper trail, records and some recollection of what happened. It is astonishing that somebody who is charged with signing a lease on behalf of a State agency, knowing that there was a health and safety issue, got no rap on the knuckles, reprimand or questioning, in so far as we can ascertain because there would be a record of that too. In different circumstances, and there is an investigation of other, albeit different, circumstances involving similar expense, it is a matter for Garda consideration, and that is as it should be. I accept the witness's answer on that. However, one cannot have corporate negligence and sloppiness, and then the answer is that person in question retires and the organisation does not remember.