Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will raise a scenario, for example, where a Minister deliberately underfunds the CCPC to the extent that it cannot carry out its statutory functions and the chairperson appears in front of the Committee of Public Accounts or any other committee and is questioned on it. If it happens to be Government policy to not direct funds in that way, the CCPC is precluded from commenting on that. I am not suggesting it is a problem we have now. As I said, this is something for the future, but to the extent that the CCPC may have the capacity to bring those concerns it could not do so if was considered policy, even though the Committee of Public Accounts or this committee are the very places it should be bringing those concerns. I am not trying to bounce the Minister of State into accepting the amendment, but does he agree there is some merit in affording that protection? He talked about the protection that is there and protecting the independence of the CCPC. That is very important but, equally, it infringes on the CCPC's independence if it cannot come before a committee to talk freely about a matter of Government policy, which in this instance specifically relates to funding and resources.