John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

People out there who are owed money will look at this meeting as a farce. It is the State that is offering the contract. It is taxpayers' money we are paying out. Surely to God we should have some respect for the SME sector, that at one stage employed 1 million people, and ensure that the State does things right and sets the example.

The witnesses should go away and reconsider the whole process of what they do. They have certainly contributed in no small way to all of this going the way it did. Yes, Carillion went bust but Mr. Cahillane stated the accounts were flawed, which is a very serious statement to make. Arising from that, there is an obligation on the National Development Finance Agency to sue the auditors, just as there was an obligation on the State to sue the auditors which audited the banks. Given that we are not yet in the territory where such a course of action is statute-barred, perhaps the NDFA should consider it while it is a live issue. I firmly believe that if the agency does not change and put manners on the industry and does not take on the auditors with respect to the flawed figures or whatever they provided, we will be at nothing because it will amount to an invitation to these companies to do the same thing over and over again. Will the NDFA sue the auditors?