Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate that the Chairman has been very helpful to me in terms of time.

While I accept that is what Mr. Coleman might want to do in the context of the State bodies, it does not go far enough.

Currently I am fighting with a State body to get audit reports from them, which is an absolute sick joke. It gave me pages of findings of internal audits with sections blacked out, which is entirely unacceptable. The fact that I am seeking them as a Chairman of an Oireachtas committee, which I have to bring to the attention of my committee, is a disgrace as well. We cannot have such a situation and I know that is not what Mr. Coleman wants.

Notwithstanding everything that Mr. Coleman has said, and using a friendly tone and not a hostile one, the freedom of information is hugely important in terms of accountability. Mr. Coleman will have to find, in my view, a way of working the freedom of information, excluding the commercial sensitivities but with a completely independent audit so that we can get at the nub of the issue because that is where it is at. I obviously do not doubt his intentions. Mr. Coleman has put a lot of thought into his work but we need to put deeper thought into what he is doing. Have international agencies taken on this role? If so, then perhaps we can learn from them but I do not know the answer.

Notwithstanding all of the buzzwords of making sure that the council and everybody else is aligned, one needs a master plan in place before entering a site. A master plan must be in black and white and based on the demographic needs or future demographic needs of the area. One will have huge sites and huge resources. One must identify employment needs, where people will work, how people will travel to and from locations, identify where schools, educational and recreational amenities will be located, and identify where older people will live. These are the contexts for the huge decisions that Mr. Coleman must make. I very much support what he is doing but he needs to put a lot more thought into it.

I have a question on the damned consultants. The first thing Irish Water did was it disappeared out of my office. I probably never saw them again for months but Irish Water sent people to my office to give me a load of whatever. The facts were in the background, consultants were being hired and money was being spent but nobody was accountable or knew what was going on and we ended up in an awful absolute appalling mess. I have no doubt that the witnesses do not want to do the same. I know that people want to speak here but I ask the witnesses, in their replies, to outline how they will ensure the same thing does not happen. Can they tell me today that they will be transparent about when consultants are used, and outline the accountability in terms of the consultants and their own accountability?

When Irish Water was established it was supposed to be an independent entity but the first thing it did was to link up all of its pay and pensions with another State organisation. Straightaway, what was intended never happened, an agency became a place where people got paid, and I believe it was never intended that they should. We need to know what the salary is going to be and all of those things. All of that information must be placed in the public realm so that we will all support, agree, fight for and make sure that Mr. Coleman's agency succeeds. That is the only way that this process will work.