Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 16 April 2015

Public Accounts Committee

Special Report 90 of the Northern Ireland Audit Office and the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General
The Bytel Project

10:00 am

Photo of Patrick O'DonovanPatrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

With respect, the difference is that Ministers get fired. The Chairman asked Mr. Griffin earlier who had been fired because of this, and Mr. Griffin said nobody had been. Ministers are the people who ultimately carry the can for public expenditure. With the greatest respect, Mr. Griffin will not be held to the same level of accountability as a Minister. I feel as if I am on the set of an episode of "Yes Minister", in which Jim Hacker was asked about the famous hospital that had no patients and he knew nothing about it. This was important. If the Secretary General of a Department does not know whether his Minister was apprised of the disappearance of €2.3 million in taxpayers' money, that is very serious.

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