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

There is no evidence of the Commissioner taking immediate or decisive action in this whole debacle. On the contrary, we seem to have heard of a decision, taken at whatever level, not to inform the Comptroller and Auditor General to keep these matters beyond the purview of the Committee of Public Accounts. We dealt with correspondence earlier today, which I will not retread, in terms of a letter the Commissioner sent to Mr. McCarthy which might be interpreted as being misleading to the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General. She was given legal advice then by Mr. Ruane to activate section 41, which was the right advice for what it is worth, but she did not take it. She had some methodology of collaborating, informing or discussing but she did not act decisively in that case. Then we have, astonishingly, a scenario in which the head of finance, Mr. Culhane, attempts to lean on and goes so far as to threaten legal action against the head of internal audit. This matter is then raised with the Commissioner by the chair of the Garda audit committee. Far from being decisive, the Commissioner failed to act.