Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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I acknowledge that the Chairman took down the tweet, apologised and has made a statement here. As Chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts and a Member of the Dáil, the tweet got much more attention beyond Twitter in the broadcast and the mainstream media. That is not terribly surprising but it does have an external impact also beyond this jurisdiction. I sat on the decade of centenaries committee which dealt with the pre-1916 period and there were members of the Chairman's party on it who played a very constructive role. The one thing we all understood was how difficult any kind of marking of the War of Independence and the Civil War would be and the need to be very respectful in any of that. I would want an assurance that this is a one-off mistake. I would like to hear that from the Chairman. The Committee of Public Accounts does not have a role in respect of this issue. Any role in respect of it is within his party in terms of how media and social media are handled.