Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

To be crystal clear, the Secretary General has said he will come before this committee. He is crystal clear on this, Chairman. As to the matters that Deputy Doherty has raised on the Committee on Budgetary Oversight, I have been in front of this committee to deal with issues there. I am the person accountable to the Oireachtas and to this committee. The Chairman used the language of "common ground". That is the basis of the work that I am doing. I and my Department are accountable to this committee. We need to ensure that this is resolved but I have to be cognisant of the fact that I now find myself in a situation that there are other committees of the Oireachtas that now feel they want to question my Department and my Secretary General on these issues. What I am saying publicly to the Chairman is that I will work to resolve this. I hope my proposal to resolve this will allow passage of the Estimates. If it does not do that, is the call of the committee but it sends out a particularly troubling signal on how we conduct business given the importance of some of the Votes that are here.