David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

If my Sinn Féin colleague, Senator Conway-Walsh would like it, I will very happily second her proposal, if I am not usurping Sinn Féin's place.

I wish to express my great sadness at the partial destruction of Notre Dame cathedral, one of the saddest aspects of which is the very large destruction of medieval glass in the rose windows. These can never be replaced and it is really sad. I know that some people have said there are plenty of poor people in Ireland and we should look after them but we should remember it is a monument to European spirituality - I am not Roman Catholic but it is part of my heritage - and we should all be proud to help in the restoration process.

I wish to refer briefly to the question of what is going on in the Joint Committee on Tourism, Transport and Sport. I understand that today, Deloitte & Touche has suddenly realised the FAI have broken sections 281 and 282 of the Companies Act 2014. Where was it when all of this was going on? The situation in the FAI was catastrophic. Where were these auditors, what were they doing and were they asleep on the job? Why did they not alert somebody to it? Why have they now just discovered that they cannot sign off because there are irregularities? This happened in 2017. We already know that the FAI treasurer thought there was only one bank account. There were 24 bank accounts. How could one possibly have anything other than completely chaotic financial reporting in those circumstances? I would like to ask the Deloitte people whether they were the crowd who were involved in auditing the banks just before the bank crash. I think somebody should audit Deloitte & Touche and see whether that firm is worth a damn, because it looks to me as if it is not and I do not think we should be employing that firm in the light of its appalling track record.