Senior civil servant apologises after being heard to refer to PAC as 'mob'

The head of the Department of Public Expenditure has been forced to apologise to a Dáil committee after being heard by the Irish Examiner telling officials before a crunch children's hospital costs grilling its chair "has to control the mob".

Department of Public Expenditure secretary general Robert Watt apologised to the Dáil's public accounts committee this morning at the start of the first of two key meetings over the financial scandal.