Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)

Cuirim fáilte roimh na finnéithe go léir. Go n-éirí le Peter Finnegan ina ról nua. Tá súil agam go mbeidh i bhfad níos mó ceoil ar an ngiotár i gceist leis.

I thank the witnesses for attending. They are very welcome. I often preface my comments when I am facing these witnesses or representatives of other entities by saying that if the same scrutiny was applied in the private sector, it would be a wonderful country. That is certainly true in respect of the banking sector. I always preface my remarks by saying that. I thank the witnesses for their work. I also thank them for subjecting themselves to scrutiny, with the help of the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General. It is vital in a healthy democracy that we have a strong public service that is willing to acknowledge mistakes, rectify them and get on with it. That is the essence of humanity and of public service.

I welcome the changes from 2016 that Mr. Finnegan outlined in his opening statement, including the election of the Ceann Comhairle by secret ballot. We had the special committee on Sláintecare. Unfortunately, the report of that committee has not been implemented, but that is not for the witnesses today. The Committee on Budgetary Oversight is a fantastic help to TDs. The Office of Parliamentary Legal Advisers was placed on a statutory footing. All of that was very welcome.

I also acknowledge that the historic Leinster House project came in on time and within budget. That is very important in the context of the other errors that were made. My views on those are known.

A very good role was played by public servants during the centenaries. As a woman, it was important to see women rewritten into history. To my shame, I became aware for the first time of Dr. Kathleen Lynn and the role she played. Women were written out of history and continue to be written out of history. The decade of centenaries went some way to rectifying that.

I will zone in on three things today. The wonderful role played by Oireachtas TV in the banking inquiry in 2015 has been acknowledged. Oireachtas TV was developed and one of the first major parliamentary events to be televised was the banking inquiry. I am going to come back to that. I want to focus on three issues. The first relates to the broadcast workers, an issue my colleagues have gone into in detail. I want to come back to it because I am most unhappy with their conditions. Another issue is the outstanding legal fees for the Angela Kerins case. We might get some details in respect of it and other liabilities. The third issue is that of the Irish language. Perhaps we will start with the case of Angela Kerins.