John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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Deputy Ross does not have to ask me that. He has been a member of this committee since 2011. He could easily establish from my contributions to the committee that the opinions I hold do not cause me any difficulty in undertaking my task as Chairman. I want to take up the Deputy on one point. He stated that the McGuinness family did well. I reject that comment completely. He has no understanding of the contribution that we made. I have already told him that the payments to my son were checked. He did the work in accordance with the rates and, if I had the same judgment now and could apply it back then, it would have been done differently. Any of us can say that about anything we do in life. We learn from experience and we move on. Sometimes we change our opinions and move on or else we develop our opinions. None of the matters put in the public domain or under discussion today means I did something wrong in the context of the State and how I was paid. I do not think the Deputy has anything to worry about in respect of my opinions and how I conduct business in this committee.