Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

If Mr. O'Brien feels he can answer that legally, he might send us a note on it rather than answering it here. There are legal provisions that protect whistleblowers as well. To put the last question in context, when Mr. O'Brien was here the last time, he said he looked forward to meeting with whistleblowers and discussing issues with them. This conversation has all been in the context of his direct evidence on that, in case anyone thinks we were straying into commission work. We were directly confirming the evidence given by Mr. O'Brien that this actually subsequently came to pass. That is why we have had that line of questioning.

On behalf of the Committee of Public Accounts, I thank Mr. O'Brien and his colleagues for attending and participating in our meeting. There are one or two items of correspondence that they said they would get to us in the coming days. We would ask to receive those within seven days. The Committee of Public Accounts will submit the full transcript of this evidence, together with the witnesses' accompanying correspondence, to the commission of investigation in seven days' time. I know they will facilitate us by meeting that timetable.