Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have only one question. I do not know which of us is the most tortured at this point. It is hot this evening. In the interests of good practice, we should make a decision on when we will finish.

My only question relates to a matter that I touched on today. I might have inadvertently misled the Commissioner a little. It had to do with the letter from Mr. Howard, head of the audit committee, before he departed. He wrote to the Commissioner regarding what Mr. Culhane had said about the internal audit. He specifically asked for matters to be withdrawn. I do not know whether this was raised already, so I apologise if I am repeating anything, but I want to know what happened. I will read from the second-last paragraph, which is the only issue I wish to raise: "I believe that the Head of Internal Audit has acted in good faith. Therefore I have to treat an accusation to the contrary as a very serious issue of principle." This is the letter that we could not date, but it was just prior to his departure in April 2017. It continues:

The situation can only be resolved if the assertions made by Mr Culhane are either unconditionally withdrawn or unambiguously overruled by a superior authority. If the Executive Director is unwilling to rectify the matter himself, then I believe that his superiors are under an obligation to act decisively.

Is the Commissioner familiar with this?