Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North-West, Fianna Fail)
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First, I say comhghairdeas to Deputy Brady on his appointment as Chair of the public accounts committee. It is an incredibly prestigious position but is also one that carries responsibility; namely, the responsibility of holding the accountable officers to account here in a fair way that ensures this House's good name for investigating matters is not contested elsewhere in other parts of our democratic structures. It also carries the responsibility that those who come before us provide information to the public - information the public is entitled to know - and that people are held to account.

There are many new colleagues, which is particularly good to see. Some of them might be wondering why we are being so nice to each other but this committee is not one that discusses Government policy but rather one that holds accountable officers to account. Although we will have significant differences on Government policy, what unites us is that we want to see good value for money in how public money is spent.

I particularly welcome Deputy Connolly back because that experience of having worked on previous reports will be incredibly useful. I note in particular that some members of the previous committee, such as Deputy Verona Murphy and former Deputy Catherine Murphy, brought huge expertise and I certainly learned a lot from them over the time. I encourage us to go back and look at some of the reports from the previous PAC because there is unfinished work there. I encourage us to start to identify the outstanding chapters in the Comptroller and Auditor General's report from September of last year. There are accounts which have been filed that we need to look at immediately. For me, the particular area of the HSE is one of the many accounts that fall before us but in its scale and size, it is disproportionate in the amount of money that is spent. Often, we can only give it so much emphasis within our limited calendar but that is an area of such significant spending I want to see us giving some of our time to it.

I will not go on any longer than that but I congratulate the Chair and we look forward to working with him. As this committee is that little bit different, that tradition of us working together is important and I echo his comments.