David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

They will but I have a final point. The difficulty is this. Mr. O'Brien comes before us as the Accounting Officer.

Mr. O'Brien's statement that he did not have sight of the draft does not cut it for me because his organisation did. The process here is that the report was commissioned by the HSE. It was at the behest of Mr. Tony O'Brien, as he said. The terms of reference were set by the HSE. It was paid for by the HSE and Mr. O'Brien's staff interacted with the author of the report. Therefore, the toing and froing in terms of giving drafts and, maybe, correspondence was by members of Mr. O'Brien's organisation. Therefore, he had an obligation to find out what exactly was going on in terms of the communication between his staff and the author on why the table was removed. It is not good enough for Mr. O'Brien simply to say he did not see the draft and that that is okay and that he does not have to answer questions on it. He is the Accounting Officer. I say this to tee up other people. They will have their questions as well. I do not believe Mr. O'Brien's answer is satisfactory.