PAC inquiry - State outlay must be transparent

If the allegation is true that unnamed officials attempted to interfere in the workings of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) it is a matter of the utmost gravity.

The inference of the charge levelled by PAC chairman, Deputy John McGuinness, is that top managers of the HSE and Department of Health were coached by Government on how they should respond when they appeared before the Dáil’s most powerful committee.

If his promised inquiry into this affair proves that officials were coached to stonewall questions during the PAC investigation it would be tantamount to subverting the democratic process. In racing parlance, it would be nobbling a horse to influence the outcome of a race.