Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As Deputy McDonald has said, this is a very powerful committee. My personal belief is that the power enjoyed by the members of this committee is accompanied by a great responsibility. We have a huge responsibility to assess the evidence in a very fair manner. We have to be very careful to focus on getting to the bottom of the truth here.

I have concerns about some of the comments that have been made, especially those questioning the honesty of the Accounting Officer. That is not appropriate until we have done a stress test on the evidence of both sides of this debate. We have to do stress tests on Mr. Kelly's evidence and Mr. Barrett's evidence. I believe we are putting ourselves in a position where we are prejudging the outcome. We need to be very careful on this. I would like the Comptroller and Auditor General to set out the position in respect of the comments that have been made about the signature. Was the Commissioner and Accounting Officer asked to re-sign the document when the paragraph in question was inserted? In his view as an auditor, did she do anything wrong in that process?