Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Right up until this year, we have Mr. Michael Howard outlining the lack of candour. There are a number of notes here, and I referred to this aspect this morning and I want to ask about it again. Mr. Michael Howard refers to emails from Mr. Culhane, which I do not need to go into here. He takes serious issue with Mr. Culhane regarding what he said in various letters. He goes on to say: "The audit report must fully reflect the fact that there has been a major failure in the financial control environment and that the failure continued for years although senior management was aware of the problem and of its unfulfilled duty to disclose it to the Audit Committee."

That was in March 2017. It took Mr. Culhane to task for the way he wrote and so on, something I will not address at this point, but he refers to a lack of candour. Will Mr. Ó Cualáin explain the lack of candour to me? Did he inquire into it? On 3 November 2016 there was a reference to the emphasising of concern about the lack of candour and the need to take action immediately and to stop shooting the messenger. Therefore, the chairperson of the audit committee was seriously concerned about the ongoing lack of candour. What did the witnesses understand this to mean? Who were the people who were not being upfront in giving answers and what inquiries did they make?