Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)

Go raibh maith agat, a Chathaoirligh. Déanaim comhghairdeas leat. Go n-éirí leat. Is ról thar a bheith tábhachtach agus tromchúiseach é seo, agus is pribhléid é a bheith ar ais ar an gcoiste seo. Congratulations.

There were 295 sets of accounts and 19 reports during the time of the previous committee. I do not think we will get to read any of those with the amount of work that comes up every Wednesday night for Thursday. In a sense, the people who have been on the committee before are being set up a little bit, and I take all the goodwill, but there is no way out of just reading the stuff for this committee. It is an onerous task. That is really what is about – reading and asking the questions.

I pay tribute to the Comptroller and Auditor General. He might not realise it, but on my bad days in politics, I thought about him, his office and the integrity of his office. It is one of the few things I have up on a pedestal, and I hope, in my lifetime, it does not fall off that pedestal. I pay tribute to the Comptroller and Auditor General. When I was there, it was Billy who kept us all sane every Wednesday before Thursday morning.

More generally, I despair sometimes because the same topics keep coming up. We have Limerick, for example. I was not a member of this committee between 2016 and 2020. The seven presidents from the seven universities who came before the committee were the least educated of the people who came before it. I say that with the greatest of respect. They were arrogant and had no interest in changing. Limerick continues to come up. I say that for what it is worth. Very good people came before us, including one particular group from what I still call the VEC in Kilkenny. The person from that entity shone with their honesty and openness. That was the case with most of the people who came before us, but then we had the others.

Bord na gCon comes to mind. What happened there was barking mad. We were treated to semen counts and all sorts of topics that we knew nothing about. It was hilarious. We also went to Tanzania during that time with the committee, which was extremely important. They were amazed that we held our meetings in public because their meetings are not held in public.

My interest, which is technical, is in procurement. I remember when it came up. I do not think matters have progressed very much since then but I am not sure. Perhaps I missed out on the reports. The accountants will know much better than me, but procurement was brought in to make things a lot more open and accountable. However, sometimes it works the opposite way, especially for local industry. It has come up repeatedly in the context of the VECs, such as, for example, Galway and Roscommon Education and Training Board. Local people and businesses are losing out. That is something I would love to follow up on. Sin é.

The contribution of former Deputy Catherine Murphy stands out for me. I shared one and a bit committees with her. She came in and worked quietly and steadfastly. She did her work from 9 o'clock on a Thursday morning onward. Gabhaim buíochas. Go n-éirí leat, a Chathaoirligh.

I am sorry, but I also wish to refer to the National Asset Management Agency. I remember the sustained pressure the Comptroller and Auditor General and the staff of this office came under. The relevant report related to Project Eagle, but there were other reports. It was a measure of the difficulty of the job. We talk about public bodies not being accountable. The Government, through its agencies, came down on the Comptroller and Auditor General. He would not say that, but I saw it happen. It was because of the report, which was very moderate and mild and pointed out that money might have been spent a little more effectively. I just wanted to say that. Thank you, Chair, for sticking with me.