Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

However, the NDFA's accounts do not come within the NTMA's remit. The issue of public private partnerships can be discussed with NTMA officials on 21 July. The NTMA is due to publish its 2015 financial statements next week. The meeting will be timely, therefore, because the agency's accounts will have just been published.

On the meeting of 15 July, I will call Deputy Farrell in a moment on the Console issue on which we have received a letter. It should be noted that Console is not audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General and the organisation does not come directly within the remit of the Committee of Public Accounts. While the matters in the public domain are very important and the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement has commenced criminal investigations into the case, we will concentrate on the role of the committee. My concern is the adequacy of the Health Service Executive's controls in respect of taxpayers' moneys the executive was disbursing and the funding of organisations such as Console. The committee wrote to the HSE last week requesting information on several matters connected to this issue. We requested: a copy of the service level agreement between the HSE and Console; a copy of the internal audit carried out by the HSE in respect of Console following the 2013 returns; a note on the shortcomings identified in the HSE systems and controls operated in that period to ensure Console and similarly funded organisations are governed in line with grant aid service level agreements; and a note on the action plan to improve controls to ensure that moneys given to HSE-funded organisations are used for purposes for which they have been given. In addition, I included in the letter a reference to the issue of top-up payments, which was discussed by the committee on previous occasions in respect of several voluntary organisations funded under section 38 and section 39 agreements.

The St. John of God organisation has featured in public discussion recently. This matter comes under the topic of top-up payments, which remains on our agenda as it was discussed at previous meetings. I have asked the HSE to deal with the issue of Console and the top-up payments, which also relates to Console. We will deal with other issues, including HSE competitive tendering, at a separate meeting. We have a specific item to deal with on 15 July.