Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Is Mr. Culhane in a position to contact the persons who gave him the information he included in his letter and check their recollection? This is third party information which he included in the letter because it was relayed to him. It is hearsay and putting hearsay in letters such as this poses a serious risk. Mr. Kelly indicated that most of the allegations Mr. Culhane has made about him on these matters are based on hearsay and information from unidentified persons. This creates a difficulty when somebody is challenging an internal audit report and we go through the letter and find that the bulk of the reasons for not being happy with the report are possibly based on hearsay. Mr. Culhane will understand that the committee has a difficulty when we receive letters, the content of which we cannot back up in terms of who said what, when or where. Mr. Kelly states he did not say some of these things or has no recollection of saying them. Does Mr. Culhane understand that these letters cause the committee difficulties?