Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I picked up on something one of the committee members said during the break. A big meeting is ongoing in the committee room next door. To set the context, it includes the Ministers for Finance and Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform. The issue has dominated the Cabinet meetings over the last three weeks. The Comptroller and Auditor General has been pulled in. Grant Thornton is getting thousands of euro. The whole governance apparatus is now focused on one thing, which is the one thing that went wrong in the beginning. However, loads of things went wrong. I am not saying that it should not be looked at, but the only time governance works in this country is when something goes wrong. The sad reality is that something has gone wrong in Donegal, but how much wrong do we have to wait for? Do we have to wait until a house falls down? Do we have to wait until somebody is injured, maimed or killed? There will be a focus in this committee, just like in the committee next door, when something goes drastically wrong. That point goes back to the point Ms McDade made about institutional bureaucracy or institutional paralysis. We need to be working proactively before one of these houses falls down. While the scheme is out there, that does not mean the job has been finished. The message has to remain on the Government's agenda that while we have a scheme, the issue is not sorted. Somebody will be here in ten or 20 years' time discussing the same issue. It will not just be in Donegal, Mayo, Clare or Limerick; it will be in other counties as well. We have to be proactive and take this group seriously. I am delighted to hear the Leas-Chathaoirleach endorsing this committee as a possible vehicle for moving forward.