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

I am not happy, anyway. I do not know if other people have read this. It is going on for a number of years now. This letter is as if they were not here at all. That is my view on it.

The issues we have are as follows. We have disclosures, and the people mentioned in the disclosures were responsible for providing legal briefs to companies to come up with terms of reference for what, ultimately, was a desktop audit. The people who did it only talked to senior management, many of whom were allegedly mentioned in the disclosures. Several meetings ago, I said that we needed to start at the beginning with this KPMG report and to work through it. There may be an issue in how disclosures are dealt with nationally from a procedural point of view and as a matter of public policy. Without prejudice to anyone involved, one cannot have people named in a disclosure having any hand, act or part in setting terms of reference or providing a legal brief. Many of the answers we had on that day were to the effect that they got solicitors to come but they drafted the terms of reference. Solicitors will do nothing for somebody without being given a brief, though they might give an idea of what is best practice.

I am told that there were people on the audit committee. Forgive my language - I am mixing up internal audit and the audit committee. The people on the audit committee were potentially mentioned in the disclosure. The same individuals secured the services of another legal firm and set the terms of reference for them. The same people who advised them on how to handle the fallout from the KPMG report had a hand in determining the brief for KPMG in carrying out the desktop audit. It was not thorough enough and the same people were involved. We cannot have a perception of a conflict of interest, however misplaced it might be. There may be an national issue but I am certainly not happy about this individual case. There are missing pages and other stuff. The people mentioned in the disclosures are investigating themselves so CIT is, in effect, investigating itself. That is not right and we cannot sit here comfortably and say the matter has been dealt with.

I know that a previous Committee of Public Accounts, of which I was not a member, looked at the KPMG report but we need to start at the beginning again as it is unsatisfactory.