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

As I said at the start of my contribution, I have the height of respect for Deputy Naughten. I have no doubt he was doing the right thing but, from the witnesses' perspective, as the senior civil servants who advise the Minister of the day, did nobody take him aside and say, "Minister, this is poor governance, you should not meet this person" in the same way as the Secretary General in the Department of the Taoiseach took the Taoiseach aside and said that the strategic communications unit does not look good for us, and now it is gone. That Secretary General was quite right. Did it not occur to the Mr. Griffin to say to the then Minister either to bring everyone for dinner or nobody for dinner?