Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 8 February 2023
Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach
Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 11 - Public Expenditure and Reform (Revised)
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances (Revised)
Vote 14 - State Laboratory (Revised)
Vote 15 - Secret Service (Revised)
Vote 17 - Public Appointments Service (Revised)
Vote 18 - National Shared Services Office (Revised)
Vote 19 - Office of the Ombudsman (Revised)
Vote 39 - Office of Government Procurement (Revised)
Vote 43 - Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (Revised)
John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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Finally, I will turn to refunds, although not necessarily specifically on that issue. That the Department has a legal arm to stonewall a person until such time as discovery is asked for shows the might of the State against the individual. Not many individuals can stay the course until the point of discovery. They will just leave it. I have seen the same tactic - I will not call it a policy - used with many whistleblowers. One can pick any of them, including those who are publicly known like Maurice McCabe, Noel McGree, Julie Grace and Seán O'Brien etc. They would have to pursue cases that cost a fortune to have their rights vindicated.
Surely we will come to the point where, rather than any Department spend money stonewalling a citizen, there is an obligation on the Government to observe the rights of that person and not spend a fortune defending the indefensible. That is being missed in this discussion because that has been the attitude of the State right down through various Governments. It defends, stonewalls and stalls and it uses legal tactics to ensure the person, be it an individual or family, is utterly defeated. Then the State learns no lessons from it.