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

Could we get an answer to that because it was my understanding that it would have been told and it ought to have been told? As it was within the remit of the 2019 accounts, Standing Order 218 was not an issue. A peculiar angle that was taken that we do not discuss individual cases. I do not know any law against that. That might be a practice that is adopted but if we have an individual case, for example, a protected disclosure, there is nothing in law that prevents the relevant Accounting Officer saying "we got that, we're working through that and here's what happening with it." There is nothing to prevent that but that has become the practice. The practice is we do not discuss individual cases. My view is that we do not have to accept this practice, the practice needs to change and we need a more candid approach. If some issub judice, that is a different matter. That applies to all committees. The question is, was the Prison Service told, as it should have been, that we would be discussing this? As a matter of basic professionalism, the Secretary General should have come in shouting from the rooftops that it was aware that we were central to a case in which it was found guilty and which it was appealing and the reason it was appealing the decision, because this committee would be entitled to know that.

On the issue relating to other committees, this is the only constitutional committee of the State and it does trump every other committee.

The reality is that we are entitled to talk to any Department or agency that spends public money and is audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General. We are entitled to quiz them and to look at them. I remember the row about section 38 and section 39 bodies at the time. They were getting an awful lot of money from the State and we were entitled to quiz them. It can be a bash to the ego. I have been on several committees, including the Joint Committee on Health, at times when the Committee of Public Accounts was ahead on issues but that is what is in the Constitution.