Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The legal advice to us has been consistent and clear that the Committee of Public Accounts can deal with some of the matters contained in the dossier but only in fairly narrow confines. That was reiterated very clearly and I checked and rechecked that with the legal adviser. It was made very clear that any matters pertaining to specific individuals or allegations of political obstruction are beyond the remit of this committee.

The dossier contains essentially two elements, or possibly three elements. One relates to allegations of tax evasion, and they are only allegations. Allied to that is the possibility of improper or corrupt payments, and those are only allegations. To top all of this off, there is a narrative of political obstruction and blockage. That is what the whistleblower alleges in the dossier. The legal person has made it absolutely clear to us repeatedly that it is beyond the remit of the committee to capture and investigate all those matters.

There will be witnesses from the Revenue Commissioners before us today and I have read Ms Feehily's opening statement, like everybody else I am sure. We will make what progress we can on the issue. It remains my view that the full breadth of what is alleged in the dossier cannot be fully, fairly and adequately assessed within this committee unless we stray beyond our remit. The legal person has told us that such action will land us in all sorts of difficulties. I wish the position were different and we did have the scope to investigate all these matters. Notwithstanding what I did, I was perfectly entitled to do so as a Member of the Oireachtas and I acted in a considered fashion. It remains open to us to make the application to which Deputy Deasy refers to the CPP. I would wager that even in doing that, we would still run up against difficulties in terms of scope. The allegations in the dossier are considerable and wide-ranging. They are very profound. That is the position as I understand it and as I clarified it on Tuesday evening, when the legal adviser came before the committee.