Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Given that we are not clear whether the awards have been made from public moneys or insurance money, surely that is an area that requires clarification in its own right. One of the major points raised by Deputy Sean Fleming at the last meeting was that we are talking about a totally different scenario where many of the wards of court are living to quite an old age and the issue of investment has changed dramatically from what it might have been 50 years ago and, therefore, there may be a need to explore the matter to some degree. If there are public moneys involved, there is an accountability issue for the committee. The very least we need to do is to tease out and see what level of public moneys may be involved. I agree entirely with the proposal that we should invite them in and let us take it from there.