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

I support the course of action that the committee has decided. I agree with the Comptroller and Auditor General that there is no change, but the additions prescribe every opportunity we would otherwise have had to discuss other issues. The proof is in the pudding. A substitute clerk was in attendance on the day, but he also happened to be the previous clerk to the committee. Deputy Carthy alluded to something that happened at the meeting. When I speculated about next year's leaving certificate, that being, something yet to happen, I thought the clerk was going to pass out from his enthusiasm to advise the Chairman that doing so was out of bounds. The Secretary General was wondering whether he was allowed to test that. I will not guard my language like others have kindly done by saying "unintended consequences". These were intended consequences, meant to shut us down. That is a fact.

Deputies Catherine Murphy and Munster may remember when the committee brought the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform before us. We specifically wanted the head of procurement in the Department to be present, but the Secretary General attended and said that he would decide who would appear because he should be the one to answer the questions. We had a good reason for wanting the head of procurement, given that he had also been put on the board of the hospital. We could have asked pertinent questions in the public interest.

All of these steps are being taken to shut that approach down. The basic rule has not changed, but the practice has been substantially prescribed so as to exclude the kind of freedom and plenipotentiary status we had to use common sense in questioning. When there was someone in the room and something was on the front page that day, we would ask the question. The way I see it, Marc MacSharry and all of us in this room are here to represent the people. I am not here to protect the system. That is how I see this interference.

I thank the Chairman. I will not speak again.