Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I totally agree that it has to be an Oireachtas committee. It is public money that is being spent to run these agencies. The first reaction would be the that it should be Public Accounts Committee. We have as much power and responsibility as the Public Accounts Committee and we should have these agencies in front of us and they should be able to answer those questions on behalf of the petitioner as well. Let us have the petitioner give us the questions so that we can actually ask them those questions. That is what it is about. It is about accountability and it is about responsibility, and that is where the big problem is here, that is, the lack of it. I have seen that over the years. Every time the revised book of Estimates comes out I look at the revised Estimates for the HSE when it comes to legal cases, court cases and compensation. That is never spoken about. Whatever happens in the High Court, you never see the name of who was held accountable or who was responsible for those mistakes or whether anybody was sacked. Why? There is no oversight, there is no accountability and no questions are being asked because it is done inside the court of law. I agree that we should bring that in here.