David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The problem when an institution has a credibility issue, through no one's fault but that of the institution, is that the Committee of Public Accounts has had before it Professor Fitzgerald's predecessor and others who said that information that was in the public domain was inaccurate and a misrepresentation when, in fact, it was not. In that respect, I refer to Professor Fitzgerald's opening statement. It referred to the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and what it described as misrepresentation. I will go further as I think we must drop the niceties here and deal with straight language. It was not misrepresentation. I would argue that individuals and the institution as a corporate body effectively lied to the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General, but they certainly gave inaccurate information, deliberately and purposely, and they intentionally backdated documents. Would that be Mr. McCarthy's understanding? Am I correct in my reading of his report that individuals and the institution as a corporate body - I used the word "lied" but perhaps we ought to say deliberately misled - the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General?