Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In any event, I understand that Deputy McDonald is still a member of the Committee of Public Accounts and she stands up here and prejudges the outcome of the witness statement and the documentation provided by the person involved here.

Deputy McDonald will be aware that this dates back a long time. On the allegations being made by the whistleblower under the Protected Disclosures Act 2014, the witness statement has been sent from the Department and the Minister to the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation, which requested the witness statement in the first instance. She will also be aware that the Committees of Public Accounts, under the Chairman, Deputy John McGuinness, has sought legal advice on the documentation that has been received. I will not preclude what that legal advice might be or what the Committee of Public Accounts may do following receipt of that advice. However, I want to say that this is a welcome trend. Under the Protected Disclosures Act 2014, the whistleblower must be protected here and the issue of tax evasion in respect of the vast quantity of documentation provided must be, if necessary, followed through by the Committee of Public Accounts.

Deputy McDonald will be aware that all of the documentation involved was sent to the five agencies - the Director of Corporate Enforcement, Garda, Revenue, and the Mahon and Moriarty tribunals. If the whistleblower, in his statement, is of the view that some of the institutions of the State did not follow through in the way that they should have, that is now a matter on which the fraud squad should follow through and for the Committee of Public Accounts to do its duty as an independent committee of this House.

Deputy McDonald stands up and has already prejudged the outcome of this matter in the same way as she is prepared to state that her party never had any cover up of anything that will be discussed later on today because of another whistleblower with an issue that was of very serious and personal importance to her.

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