Marc MacSharry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There is no complexity. It is black and white. If there is an allegation against me, I need to be 100 miles away from the investigation other than when the independent investigator comes to me to ask me questions about it. Why did KPMG consult the executive only? Why did it not conduct wholesale interviews across a random selection of staff to see if any of these things stands up? It did not do so. According to a letter on this issue that was sent by Bob Savage after the draft report, KPMG undertook further review work and consulted the executive for a number of weeks. The executive is telling us it was the subject of numerous allegations. This entire process is flawed. I suggest to the HEA and the Department that they should tear up the flawed guidance they have because it asks the fox to investigate the incident that resulted in the chickens being eaten. That is not real, appropriate, authentic or credible. In fact, it makes clowns out of everybody associated with this process, including those of us who are trying to ask questions. This is not personal and it is without prejudice. Maybe all of these allegations were totally vexatious. The credible and professional names that are associated with the report which has been carried out - I refer to KPMG, legal firms and so on - are selling themselves short by being associated with a process that was such as shambles. I suggest to the HEA and the Department that their guidance is laughable and wide open to accusations of containment and of enabling the process to be internally managed to ensure the truth is suppressed in the interests of protecting an individual, a group of individuals or an institution. Frankly, it plays completely into the credible accusation, which this committee has seen more than most, that those who want to be whistleblowers need to be prepared to be portrayed as villains and crooks and to be thrown under the bus. It is laughable and comical to suggest that the process of allowing institutions to investigate themselves is independent.