John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Are there any other questions on the work programme? We have provided clarity on next week’s meeting. St. Patrick’s Day falls in the following week and we will meet representatives of the Dublin Docklands Development Authority on 26 March. Is that agreed? Agreed.

I will comment briefly on yesterday's meeting with the Northern Ireland Public Accounts Committee, which was interesting, productive and worthwhile in cross-Border terms. It was also good to have the Comptroller and Auditor General from both jurisdictions give a report on a cross-Border project that resulted in a loss of €4.3 million to the authorities North and South. Many issues arising from this project must be addressed through public hearings of the Committees of Public Accounts, North and South. One of the issues that stood out was that €1.3 million was spent on equipment valued at €30,000 that was almost obsolete. This gives a flavour of the extent of the problem with the project in question. While it was initially to be funded by the European Union, it was ultimately funded by the Governments in both jurisdictions and some substantial payments were made without any paperwork being provided. The end result of the project was to be a cross-Border fibre optic cable and broadband service. There is a question as to whether some of the cable was already in the ground. The company that tendered for the project had a profit of €30,000 on a turnover of €500,000 and one director and other internal entities were trading with each other and drew down money in a highly questionable project. We agreed yesterday that the two clerks would liaise and set a date for two separate hearings, one in the North on 18 March and a second in this jurisdiction shortly thereafter. Can the report be circulated?