Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Yes. Should we write to the Committee on Procedure and Privileges to outline our concerns? A member of the Committee of Public Accounts is responsible for this leak. Should we ask that committee to write to each individual member?

I can ask people, but if the CPP would point out the responsibility of members separately it might help. There are two concerns. The first is that the slant of what is published and recorded by national media will be thought by the public to constitute our agenda for the day when there could be much broader issues. The second worry I have is that someday a witness will say "I am not coming in because I have already been adjudicated on in the minds of the committee on radio, television and the newspapers". That will potentially damage our ability to get full co-operation from witnesses when we see this. We have had the opening statement from our private session in the newspapers already today. I do not know what the source of that was but I worry some witnesses may take a jaundiced view of appearing here if they are not getting fair play as they see it. We will write to the CPP and express our concern, asking it to consider the matter. It is probably not the first time it has come across this issue and it may have some other view as to how this matter could be dealt with.