Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The one piece of hope is for us to come in here and try to ask questions, and sometimes ineffectually and not very well because it is extremely difficult notwithstanding the excellent help provided by the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General. Let us park this thing about politics because the claim has been made, on purpose, by Fine Gael.

I was taken totally by surprise by the Chairman's comment in the Dáil. In the first instance, he should have told us about it. Perhaps he can clarify why did not tell us. If he remembers the private session, I was the person who raised the comment in terms of the Chairman's conversation with the Minister and I said I was unhappy. I referred to a scenario in which pressure was being applied for us to change our words and asked what would happen if he spoke to each member of the committee in turn etc. I raised the matter with the Chairman at the time in private. Each of us are equal. It is a serious threat if that was the threat. It adds to the serious pressure put on this committee. I shall leave my comments at that and look forward to his clarification.