Séamus McGrath (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)

Like the other members, I congratulate Deputy Brady on taking up the position of Chair. It is a very onerous and responsible task. His opening remarks set the right tone for us. This committee is like no other. From what I hear, we try to leave the politics at the door. That is important. We have the shared aim of getting the best value for public expenditure. Unfortunately, in recent times we have seen plenty of examples which resonated in a poor way with the public in terms of the misuse of public expenditure and of wasteful expenditure. Our job is to try to highlight that, expose it and make sure it does not happen again.

This committee is like no other. Those who went before us set a very high bar. Deputy Ardagh mentioned the DIRT inquiry and other inquiries over the years. I was outside of politics looking at it on the television and looking at the work done by the Committee of Public Accounts. We have a very onerous task ahead of us. I feel the weight of responsibility, as I am sure we all do, in ensuring that we, as members of this committee, fulfil our mandate insofar as we can. We are all busy and we have time constraints but we will give it our best shot and work in a collegiate and collaborative way to try and ensure we fulfil our mandate and put the best possible scrutiny on public expenditure.

As Deputy Dolan said, there are now record levels of expenditure, which presents its own challenges in terms of the various arms of the State, some of which are under more scrutiny than others. As has been mentioned, there is the HSE, Uisce Éireann, local authorities and so on. The State has a vast array of arms that use public money. Our task is to try and have as much oversight of it as possible.

I endorse everything that has been said. I want us to leave politics at the door, work as a group with the shared aim of ensuring that we put the best possible scrutiny on public expenditure and work with Mr. Seamus McCarthy and the team in his office and with the committee's administrative support team as well.

I look forward to the work. There is a steep learning curve. I asked Deputy McAuliffe what kind of items we can or cannot bring up and whether Uisce Éireann, etc., came within our remit. We will all learn and I am sure that will happen quickly enough. I want to play the most active role I can as a member of this committee. I look forward to working with the Chair and all of the other members.