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

Right. I am going to put it to Mr. Raleigh that there is. I think, Chairman, albeit that Mr. Day is retired, it is my understanding that he had a very clear analysis of how serious things were in respect of Console. I accept entirely that Mr. Raleigh cannot answer for a situation when he was not in position, but if we are to get to the bottom of what happened here and why, I suggest, Chairman, that we need to have Mr. Day come and give some account to the committee.

What I cannot figure out, as other members have said, is that so many flags were raised at so many junctures at very senior levels, and yet the system sat back.

Let us be honest about this. I am glad Mr. O'Brien clarified with regard to RTE. I understand RTE had been working on this story over a number of years, from as early as 2012. I suspect that was a factor, which was good work on its part, in encouraging the audit and uncovering what was uncovered. However, if we are to get to the bottom of this, we must know the dynamics at that time, what was done, what letters were sent, what meetings were held, what was not done and why it was not done. We must establish that there was no inner sanctum or circle or just pure sloppiness on the part of people who were charged with protecting public money. Can Mr. O'Brien see the point of view of the public, after everything we went through in the last term, that this looks as if the HSE has not only not learned anything but perhaps that it is not in the business of learning anything? Does it not scream sloppy?