Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I think the most benign interpretation of this might suggest that we were being waited out on an opportunity for us to, once again, as we have on a number of occasions, question the national paediatric children’s hospital and those who are responsible for delivering the children’s hospital. It is unfortunate we have not had that opportunity. However, the beauty with democracy and our Constitution is it cannot be waited out because once the Dáil is reformed, there will be a public accounts committee and we will continue to have public scrutiny on this issue. Clear differences exist between the Government and the contractor involved in this project. Any new Government, whatever its colour, will inherit those issues. I hope both the public accounts committee and the incoming Government will continue to apply pressure to ensure there is the maximum value for money for the Irish people.

I refer to Deputy Murphy’s absence. I personally thank her, for me and many of the new members of the public accounts committee who joined in the depths of Covid when we often did not have the support of colleagues around us.

Having someone like Catherine on the committee was incredibly important. Both she and other members who were here before set a tone that we were here to do the work of the Committee of Public Accounts and that we had other forums for the other parts of our jobs. I thank her for an incredible length of service to this Dáil and in particular to the Committee of Public Accounts. One can only highlight the number of issues on which she has given huge public service – big projects have come under huge public scrutiny that perhaps would not have without her work. I put that on the record.