David Norris (Independent)

I will come down very much to earth. What have the consequences of this been? Let us honestly face them. The consequences have been that the work of the Committee of Public Accounts has been interrupted. Mr. Molloy will not now appear before it and he cannot now be questioned. It is not a question of €400 for nail varnish and a few hairdos, he will get from the State straight away approximately €500,000 in severance pay, he will receive a pension and we will have to hire somebody else. This is a man about whom questions have been raised, but he has had very strong support for his professionalism. At the end of the day, this story that was stirred up by The Sun has cost the taxpayer a hell of a lot of money, but it is easy to get people who have lost jobs and people who failed to get placements on FÁS programmes stirred up, but it is a dangerous process.