Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We have recently received letters from the Joint Committee on Justice and Equality asking us to look at matters. We have heard from the Joint Committee on Health. I am making it clear, as Chairman of the Committee on Public Accounts, that each of those committees had an opportunity to deal with these issues long before they ever came before the Committee on Public Accounts. They deal with these matters at their Estimates hearings. There was nothing preventing those committees from dealing with the prison Vote or the capital plan for the HSE as it relates to the children's hospital when they were discussing their Estimates in recent years. I do not know what level of discussion they had, but the issues have now landed on our desk. They all had the opportunity to raise these matters long before they landed on our desk, had they chosen to do so.