Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

Professor Norton was with us on 6 April last. Subsequently, we received the Ernst & Young report. I have just dug out the transcript of our meeting from 6 April. Professor Nolan told us that the service had been contracted for the previous 15 years. I asked if the controls would be as robust as if a new service was being contracted. Essentially, the response was that the kind of due diligence carried out would have been as if it had been a first-time contract. It is very interesting to compare that transcript to the content of the Ernst & Young report. The system that it seems to have gone though really consisted of somebody in the library signing off on it. It was assigned at director level and did not go through the Agresso system, which would have provided checks and balances at either end. This was a very large amount of money. It looks to me like due diligence was not performed as I was led to believe it was when I asked the question on 6 April.