Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish to start by thanking the Chairman and all the members of the Committee of Public Accounts for the considerable amount of work that they put into this report. It would be remiss of me not to say that at the outset. I believe that the vast majority of members did their very best to interpret the information that was presented to them in the Comptroller and Auditor General's report. I would also like to commend him and his staff for a very comprehensive report on the matters before us.

Regardless of any other comments that have been made in the House thus far, the issue that I and my colleagues had with the two offending paragraphs came down to the basic principle of fairness, in terms of questioning the Minister specifically on the issues by which the members of the committee were offended. Now, it has emerged this evening that not only was it subject to a freedom of information request, of which we were aware, and that it had been reported on, but it was also subject to parliamentary questions. Thus, from my own perspective, I would say it was remiss of me not to ask the Minister very directly in respect of that meeting, and therefore that it was also remiss of the members of the Committee of Public Accounts.

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