Marc MacSharry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

While I know that we will deal with it next week, I refer to an issue that features on the front page of the Irish Examinertoday. It would be remiss of the committee not to acknowledge the gravity of the situation with regard to utterances made in the Committee of Public Accounts being ruled by a Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, adjudicator to have been the reason for an agency nurse, who was allegedly sexually assaulted in the course of her work, being penalised by having her role cancelled as a direct result of her case being rightly brought into the public domain through this committee. There are grave consequences arising in this regard. The implications of the ruling are that one should keep things in-house and play by the rules or there will be punishment. What is remarkable is that this happened on the very evening that the case was mentioned in the committee. Obviously, there is a victim in this situation, who rightly should be compensated, but beyond that, it should be noted that this is not the first issue that has arisen. Despite the hardworking people we have at all levels in the Prison Service, including prison officers and contractors who are dedicated to their jobs, there is a serious dark side that needs to be rooted out. This committee has a clear role to play in this work and we should acknowledge the articles that are in the public domain today, prioritising them to be dealt with next week.