Shane Ross (Dublin South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

If there is a paper trail, we should see it. There is an extraordinary conflict of evidence. It is really very stark. Mr. Ó Donnchú and Mr. Quigley state nobody in the Department knew anything about the matter, that there is absolutely no question of any communication on this issue and that there was no sanction. Is that not correct? The chairman of the National Gallery, said there was plenty of evidence and consultation, and that the Department gave the go-ahead and knew about it. That is pretty easy to sort out, I would have thought, because someone is badly mistaken. This is a bit of a shambles and the payment should never have been made, irrespective of whether it was understood to have been sanctioned or not. It is a top-up and there is absolutely no doubt whatsoever about that. The idea that payments of this nature should be given is utterly wrong because it is in breach of the guidelines, be it intentional or not. Paying the €40,000 up-front is a completely and utterly wrong way of doing these things if it is right to do so at all. It should have been done on the basis of bills coming in and being paid, and not on the basis of giving €40,000 and saying the change could be kept if not spent. The latter is an extraordinary, extravagant and loose way of dealing with public money. I cannot believe that anybody in the Department would have formally agreed to that. Would Mr. Ó Donnchú and Mr. Quigley have agreed to the payment if they had known about it?