John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will move on under the heading of reform, something that Mr. Watt mentioned a good few times in his opening statement. I advised the committee that I would raise the issue of the tender for the contract for air services to the Aran Islands. I am directing my question to Mr. Watt initially, because he referred to reforms within the system. This was an example of a botched job that had to be reversed because due diligence was not done. How could the system have awarded a contract to a company that was not in a position to deliver the service because it had never had a licence? I have a conflict of interest, as my wife is from Inis Mór, but I am probably the only Deputy who uses that service regularly. I have some experience of it. When this situation occurred, it caught my attention. When it was announced that the preferred tender was a helicopter service on the other side of Galway city, the immediate reaction of almost everyone, not just in Galway or on the islands but in the entire country, was "For God's sake." It was crazy.

In terms of delving into the nuts and bolts of how the process was constructed, what does Mr. Watt do as head of a Department that has direct jurisdiction over and oversight of the Departments involved and Mr. Quinn's office? Does he intervene? He stated that he did not want to intervene in every contract, which is fair enough, but people might ask whether he and his officials inquired into what was happening when he found out about this situation.