At dinner in the Irish Embassy in Buenos Aires last week Jim Mitchell, chairman of the PAC, told the following story.
The Public Accounts Committee was first set up by Gladstone when he was chancellor of the exchequer at Westminster. Later, as leader of the opposition, he had a row with Prime Minister Disraeli. Gladstone said the crisis was a catastrophe. No, it wasn't, said Disraeli, it was merely a tragedy. Would the PM explain the difference, asked a backbencher. Disraeli said it would be a tragedy if Gladstone fell into the Thames but a catastrophe if he was pulled out.
So, quipped Mitchell, if the Argentinian trip by himself, Conor Lenihan and Michael Bell got publicity at home, it was tragedy but it would have been a catastrophe if it hadn't.
