Misuse of PAC process: Self-serving and wrong

Oireachtas members sitting on a Leinster House committee have an opportunity to add value to Irish life and enhance our democratic process.

They also have a gilt-edged opportunity to indulge in self-serving grandstanding. Most politicians resist that temptation but some cannot — which may be one of the reasons that Robert Watt, secretary general of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform decided not to become involved in the process.

It would not be surprising if the chairman of the new national children’s hospital, Fred Barry, followed Mr Watt’s example after his experience with the public accounts committee yesterday.

He said he was “gobsmacked” by questions put to him yesterday morning.

He was asked by Sinn Féin’s Imelda Munster to give a final cost of the children’s hospital, a task that has defied every expert so challenged because of how the building contract is structured.

It allows for building inflation which stands at 7% and is likely to add at least €50m to the €1.7bn estimate.

Though the consequences of that contract are indeed scandalous, Mr Barry was not its architect. He only joined the hospital team earlier this year.

Ms Munster must have, or at least should have, known this and rather than shoot the messenger, pursued a more rewarding line of questioning.

These committees were established to counter our institutionalised indifference to accountability. Yesterday’s performance hindered rather than helped that process.