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

As conscious as we may be of the personal sensitivities of tense relationships and all of that, I am not really interested in them - no harm to anybody concerned. What interests me is that in the Department's explanation of the turn of events, it cites the original relationship framework and argues that it was restrictive. The Department says its hands were tied, there was nothing it could do, it did not see it and it did not know it. However, when one drills into the facts of this, it emerges that the Department did not, in my view, assert itself in the way taxpayers, citizens or anyone with an iota of sense would have expected. The Department tells me that relationships were tense and Mr. Moran says there was push-back. Is the Department saying it was bullied off the pitch? Who was this push-back coming from? Was it from the chairman and CEO, or did it manifest itself in the daily tic-tac-ing?