Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

That is okay for the Chairman himself, but as a member of this committee, I read this and I find it very worrying, and that is something that is going to have to be teased out today. I do not know what words I used but I certainly stand over whatever I said. This document shows that PwC was engaged in November 2018 in relation to this. It has been employed by contract since January 2019 in relation to general work but it was given this specific piece of work in November 2018. The document states that in November PwC was appointed as one of a number of organisations and that there is no separate, documented advice from any of the external parties involved. I happened to hear the Chairman's interview today and I think he said that PwC was only involved for a few days, but that is subject to clarification. It was paid €21,477, plus VAT, for a couple of days' work, and that is again subject to clarification. That external advice, of which there is no documentation, along with the other external advice, was used to justify the step of going forward. As there was no way of going back, they had to go forward, so they called in all of the expert advice to go forward with no documented evidence. Fast-forward to January, and we commission PwC again to do an even more extensive review. Significantly, the Chairman and I both commented at the time on the conclusion. It was asked to give recommendations and findings but its conclusion was that there was no choice but to go ahead. It was only copper-fastening what apparently - because one has to be very careful now, apparently - was already decided in November 2018, or that is how it looks to anyone listening, and to us trying to struggle through all this documentation.

Interestingly, it is not mentioned on the list of reports so we will be going back to that as well. We asked for the list of reports and struggled to get it.