Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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Before calling the speakers, I note they have indicated in the following sequence: Deputies Connolly; MacSharry; Cullinane; Kelly; Catherine Murphy; McDonald and Madigan. The first speaker will have 20 minutes, the second speaker 15 minutes and every other speaker has ten minutes. I will be keeping tightly to that timescale in order that everybody has an opportunity to get in. There will be further opportunities during the course of the day.

There was one point I wanted to take up directly before we proceed on the opening statement and it concerns Mr. Kelly and Mr. Culhane. Mr. Kelly says in his opening statement, referring to a letter of 20 February 2017, that he finds this letter unacceptable because Mr. Culhane questions his motives, professional integrity and competence. I would like to ask Mr. Culhane about that letter, I am sure that he is familiar with it. We will get it up on the screen. This is the letter dated 20 February 2017. There is such a volume of documentation here today that it is going to be difficult to get it up on the screen but I will read the particular passage. It is Mr. Culhane I want to ask here because Mr. Kelly has specifically referred to that letter as totally unacceptable. I want to deal with that if possible.

Does Mr. Culhane have the letter to hand? There are two points I want to take up in it. I am reading from the end of page two. This is a letter addressed from Mr. Culhane to Mr. Kelly on the draft interim audit report just before it was finalised. In the fourth paragraph, at the end of the second page, Mr. Culhane writes to Mr. Kelly that at a meeting in the college he, Mr. Kelly, stated to Superintendent McCabe, the college administrator, that he, Mr. Kelly, believed that the college had offshore bank accounts. Did Mr. Culhane say that?