Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour)

The audit took place following the second and not the first error and I requested that the audit should be carried out after 7 October 2008. The difficulties referred to by the Minister of State arose on 10 December and the audit was carried out after that. Why were shadow spokespersons such as myself and Deputy Hogan kept in the blind about this?

The issue came to the attention of the Minister of State and the Department because somebody who was before a DRC pointed out it was operating illegally and it was not discovered by the PRTB. No audit was carried out. An individual who was before a committee noticed it was operating illegally and brought it to the Minister of State's attention. He should not state this was identified as a result of an audit. The audit to which he referred was carried out after the second mistake was discovered. I take on board there may not be difficulties following the audit but the mistake was not discovered by the audit.

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