David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I understand that. As the Comptroller and Auditor General has stated, the dispute, if one wants to call it that, is between the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection and the DPC. Mr. McCarthy is right concerning the specifics of this case, but issues around the powers, functions and responsibility of the DPC and how it interacts with Departments will arise. Those matters are within our purview. I am not talking about the Department of Justice and Equality or even the DPC. Rather, there are questions around value for money and process dating back to the Comptroller and Auditor General's 2015 chapter, which our committee has not picked up on since. A report now cites that chapter and states that there are still problems and that a contractor may have been given money for cards that were never produced. We need to pick up on these issues as well as the interaction between the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection and the DPC. Perhaps we can deal with the purview, roles and responsibilities of the DPC, but it is the Department with which we need to have a proper discussion.