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

I am a bit puzzled about the legal advice, although maybe it is no harm. A precedent for hearing directly from a whistleblower has been set. The person voluntarily came before the committee at his or her own request. The person to whom I refer is Sergeant Maurice McCabe. The session was in private because there were big concerns at the time about Sergeant McCabe's own legal protections, standing and, indeed, some of the material that we were dealing with even though at the time we had a very robust debate in terms of public session versus private session.

It would be astonishing if we refused the whistleblower access to this committee given that the person is anxious to come here, particularly given all that has happened and given the fact that the HSE and others have an open platform here, in public session, to deal with issues and answer questions but also to put forward its account of events. I am in favour of the witness presenting-----