Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have said this publicly several times. Witnesses get invitations. The Secretary General will know that over the decades no member or Chairman of a committee has ever seen the invitations that went out to the witnesses. We have never had sight of that. That needs to be addressed among other things in terms of the content. There clearly was a failure, which I am acknowledging. I accept the Supreme Court ruling that the issue of the invitations needs to be dealt with. The Supreme Court felt it was a sufficiently significant issue to deal with. Every committee Chairman in this Dáil and previous Dáileanna must have felt, "What are we talking about? We never saw an invitation." Clearly that issue needs to be dealt with, not only making sure members are familiar with what is in the invitation but also that it is clear in what it says. We are agreed on that.

The next issue is the third issue.