Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Green Party)

We will get to that, but I will stick to the amendment. The Houses of the Oireachtas are trying to reduce the number of committees. How can that be squared with adding another committee and more costs? I understand the Committee of Public Accounts has powers of compellability and that any regulator could be compelled to come before the committee, even if a new committee was not established. I presume the usual restrictions would apply to anyone coming before the committee. The person cannot give his or her opinion on an issue but may only state fact and is prohibited from disclosing sensitive information. This would be well and good. It is not necessary to disclose material to the public view that could damage the country. While non-disclosure and lax regulation caused much of this problem we need to ensure that we do not go too far in the other direction. Minutiae cannot be disclosed line by line every second week at a committee. That is why I agree with the Minister about checks and balances. Is that part of the Minister's reasoning, that he does not want sensitive information that could be damaging to the interest of the country being disclosed?

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