Costello calls on Mick Wallace to attend PAC

15 July 2015

by Cllr Joe Costello

Arising from Deputy Mick Wallace’s remarks in Dail Eireann today and previously, I am calling on him to attend the Public Accounts Committee, which is the appropriate Dáil Committee for inquiry into the activities of NAMA.

The Committees of the Oireachtas are there to examine matters of public concern. The PAC is responsible for safeguarding the expenditure of taxpayers’ money by holding state agencies to account. That is what is at stake in some of Deputy Wallace’s assertions regarding NAMA. It is inappropriate for him to seek a public inquiry when the available mechanisms have not been exhausted or even used.

The PAC has invited Deputy Wallace to attend the Committee either in a public or private capacity. So far he has refused.

It is ironic that NAMA, a public body, immediately agreed to attend PAC on request but that a public representative elected to the Dáil refuses to attend one of its Committees.

Deputy Wallace should now reconsider and attend the PAC.