David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have seen enough episodes of "Yes Minister" to understand that there is a difference between people who oversee policy and people who have responsibility for the operation of policy. I clearly understand that it is Mr. Cody's role to implement whatever policy is in place so, obviously, I understand that. My point is that there are other countries where there is proper scrutiny and even publication of the taxes paid by individuals, including high net worth individuals and companies. We operate a different system. We are the Committee of Public Accounts and it is our job to scrutinise how money is spent, which can be done very easily, and how money is raised, which is more problematic because we cannot discuss whether or not individual companies or individuals themselves have actually paid the taxes they should have paid or even scrutinise that. We must take Mr. Cody's word for it. We cannot scrutinise it. I am only making this point by way of an observation because a number of these big companies are going to appear before the Committee of Public Accounts. We have invited them and, hopefully, they will come before us voluntarily. Some have already acknowledged that they will-----