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

The Department is answerable to the Committee of Public Accounts and is responsible for the various reports that go between that committee, the Comptroller and Auditor General and the various Departments.

The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform has a central role in accountability. I ask the committee to support a request that the Comptroller and Auditor General look at this and provide us with a report. I am simply informing the Department of that. It needs to be done urgently and I think the committee will recommend that should be the case. Mr. Howard said that the Department's position is protecting the taxpayer. I echo what Senator Conway-Walsh and others have said in respect of the payment of social welfare to those who may lose their jobs and the tax foregone from what the subcontractors would have paid. Those issues need to be looked at in finding a solution which everyone can support.

Mr. Cahillane mentioned suppliers giving notice. He referred to those with a note on the end of their paperwork saying that it was not the customer's property until such time as it was paid for and giving notice of that aspect of their contract to the companies involved. I am giving the Department notice that JAGGO Limited in Carlow and Walsh's in Kilkenny have such notifications on their paperwork. What is going to happen to the furniture that is not paid for that has that proviso in the contract itself?

Senator Horkan asked for the list of moneys due. I ask the Department to do that but, if for any reason that cannot be done, will it give a clear indication of the numbers of subcontractors involved and the amount of money relative to each subcontractor? The names can be redacted if the Department wants to do that but provide us with the details of the amounts of money owed to these individuals.

On the subcontractors and the investors, or the banks, involved, the time has come in Ireland when the banks should be given a good decent haircut rather than the subcontractors. It is time that the institutions were made to pay. In this case, I suggest the Department seeks further legal advice in respect of KPMG and the information that the Department relied on. If the Department cannot bring KPMG to court, it might be able to bring to court those that relied on that information and that gave it to the Department. The Department said that was, at best, misleading. We cannot ignore that. It has to be examined in far greater detail.

I thank all the witnesses for coming. I acknowledge the subcontractors here are representing a far bigger group and I appeal again to all parties to bring some common sense and a conclusion to this. We as a committee will not finish with this today. This is unfinished work that members will want to return to in the interests of fair play. This joint committee is adjourned until further notice. The select committee is scheduled for 9.30 a.m. on 20 September.