Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the construction sub-contractors for the presentation and for sharing their stories. I am sorry we had to go for the vote earlier on.

It is clear what has happened here in terms of the Government responsibility. We had the NDFA in before us the other day. In terms of the failure to conduct due diligence, the NDFA failed. As to whether the Government needs to sue the audit company that stood over the accounts of the company the contract was awarded to, that is an option that Government needs to be seriously looking at. The buck has to stop somewhere.

The decision made was obviously the wrong decision and the sub-contractors were at the end of the food chain in the sense of the impact. It will continue to have an impact because through no fault of their own their creditworthiness in the future will be brought into question. The Government has a responsibility to protect indigenous businesses such as these first, second and third generation businesses. That is what would seem to me to be the first step. We, as the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach, should suggest that the Government put such protection in place immediately.

When I asked the NDFA the other day whether it had correspondence with the audit company involved, the NDFA's representatives stated they did not. They need to enter into formal engagement with the audit company because it gave them misleading information in terms of standing over the accounts.

I am a parent of somebody going to school. If one does not pay for something, one has stolen it. It is as simple as that. It is the Government's responsibility. Sending children into a school where they will be asked to use stolen property is so unethical it is off the scale. What else can parents do in that situation? Is it the responsibility of the Department of Education and Skills? It comes back to what Mr. Miley said. We need to get who is responsible. The Government is responsible for that. They are responsible for the situation that the sub-contractors find themselves in and they are responsible for the situation that they will put children, parents and families in come September if this is not resolved. There is a small window of opportunity there to resolve it. For the Government to put a contingency fund in place that will assure these businesses in the future, ensure that the furniture is paid for and then sort it out with the main audit company, would be the clearest way that I would see it being done. In terms of the certification for the other company, it must be compelled to bring this company on board to be able to certify the work done to date. It needs to be instructed.

In terms of what the Chair is saying as to whether Mr. Miley will have an answer going out of here today, it has been valuable to have Mr. Miley here. In one sense, I wish Mr. Miley had been here before the NDFA because one could see that there was this hands-off approach of it being nothing to do with them. All of us, collectively, on the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach, know it had everything to do with them and everything to do with the original decision that they made. It may be that we will even have to bring the NDFA back in here but there will be specific actions that we should be able to take at the end of the hearing today.

I will not take any more time. We are much clearer now on what needs to be done than we were before we heard the presentations from the sub-contractors. We also feel, even though many of us are not in government, an obligation to ensure that theft is not facilitated which, to me, is what has happened here.