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

Here is the item of business I wish to raise. I was more than taken aback yesterday evening to hear on the floor of the Dáil that the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, had threatened, through the Chairman, to injunct this committee. I would like the Chairman to give us an explanation as to when that happened and the context in which it happened. We should have been made aware of that fact. That is my first question. Second, if it is the case - I take the Chairman's word and I have no reason to disbelieve him - that such a threat was made against this committee we need to take that matter head-on. We need to correspond with the Minister for clarification as to his rationale. As the Chairman stated yesterday, the Minister clearly did not injunct us and it is not a case of withdrawing the threat. We, as Members of the Oireachtas, are elected on an equal basis, as is the Minister or anybody else, to come in here and do our job. I am of the view that we are due an apology for that deeply ill-judged threat made against us.

I also want to say this - I was a member of the previous committee and I am a member of this committee. That it is a matter of record. It was also alleged on the floor of the House by another member of Government that this committee had brought politics into disrepute in the previous Dáil. I want to make it absolutely clear, as somebody who was a member of the previous committee and who might be regarded as one of its disreputable members by those in government, that we did our work fairly and without fear or favour. Dare I say it, we did our work very well. We did it on a collegial basis. Far from bringing politics into disrepute, I would argue that we injected a level of optimism among the general public that some level of accountability in Irish political life was possible. I am referring to the Minister of State at the Department of Finance, Deputy Eoghan Murphy. I was taken aback because it is not his form to be aggressive in this manner. He was referring matters relating to Angela Kerins and Rehab. For the record, we won the court case relating to the latter. That might upset elements of the political establishment, including some here. We actually were vindicated in the courts. I wanted to make those points as well.

My question is as follows. Having dropped that bombshell last evening, the Chairman now needs to explain to us when it happened. Was it during that conversation to which the Chairman referred previously when the Minister, Deputy Noonan, had sought to speak to him that the threat was made? What are we going to do about it? I would not be happy to simply carry on regardless. There are those who would wish to spancel the work not only of this committee but also of the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General. A message needs to come from this committee that neither will happen.