Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. To be clear, the question is in the context of a proposed secondment that did not happen. Nothing actually happened in terms of any spending of money. Several things were done on the back of that to ensure transparency and to ensure that lessons are learned. The first is that a detailed report was put together by the Secretary General at the time and the second is that I commissioned an independent report by Ms Quinn into this matter and she has provided that. Third, I am here today; the Secretary General is before a committee; the Secretary General at the Department of the Taoiseach was before a committee last year; the Secretary General at the Department of Health was before the committees last year. I would argue that is a substantial amount of accountability and transparency based on a secondment that never actually happened.