Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Before we meet Mr. Brian Rowntree, a member of the NAMA Northern Ireland advisory committee, I want to deal with the other items on the agenda. Are the minutes of 6 October agreed? Agreed. Are there any matters arising from the minutes? Nothing special arises today from the minutes.

We will go through correspondence received since the last meeting. Items Nos. 91A and 101A cover briefing material in respect of the appearance of representatives of the Revenue Commissioners. That is noted and has already been discussed. Items Nos. 97B(i), 97B(ii) and 97B(iii) are associated with an e-mail received from Pádraig Corkery of NAMA with copies of correspondence from Cerberus to NAMA relating to the payment of success fees. That is noted. The correspondence is not complete as it does not include the e-mails from NAMA to Cerberus or internal e-mails relating to same. When the NAMA chairman, Frank Daly, was before the committee, he read from an e-mail in connection with the undertaking from Cerberus to NAMA and he referred to the documentation from Cerberus to NAMA. We would like to see the e-mails that went from NAMA to Cerberus which led to that e-mail. We have only received one side of the correspondence and we will follow up on the rest. Item No. 99B is an e-mail from Declan Reid of the Department of Finance on the six directions that the Minister of Finance made to NAMA since 2010. That is noted and will go on our file. Item No. 97C relates to an e-mail from an individual enclosing a newspaper article on Project Eagle. I suggest we note this as well.

Items Nos. 96C(i), 96C(ii) and 96C(iii) are associated with an e-mail from an individual drawing attention to the allocation of €720,000 in September 2016 for the provision of Irish language coaching to Gaeltacht children. The individual believes that the moneys will be wasted. He encloses some details on the scheme and a record of Dáil Deputies speaking on the revival of Irish. As this relates to a policy and implementation of a programme about to begin, it is not within our remit. We can only look back at expenditure. There is no evidence that money has been wasted. We note this and we will inform the individual and suggest that he should bring it to the attention of the Joint Committee on the Irish Language, the Gaeltacht and the Islands. Is that agreed? Agreed. Deputy Catherine Connolly is involved in that committee. We will pass that over to the Deputy.

Items Nos. 98C(i)and 98C(ii) are associated with an e-mail from Deputy Catherine Connolly and an attachment entitled papers from the First Minister following 14 October 2015 briefing session. The third and fourth pages were referred to by the Deputy during the meeting with the Minister last week. This relates to Project Eagle. We note this on our file. The next item is an e-mail from Declan Reid of the Department of Finance with follow-up information from last week's meeting. We note this correspondence.

Next we will deal with reports, statements and accounts received. We will put the list on the display screen for committee members. Since the last meeting some documents have been received. The first one is headed Ciste Pinsean Tithe an Oireachtais. This relates to funds and pension benefits for former Oireachtas Members and surviving spouses and children. It has a clear audit report. The next item is the national training fund. This fund is used to raise the skills of those in unemployment and to provide training to unemployed persons. It has a clear audit report. The Teagasc report for 2015 has a clear audit report. The Arts Council 2015 accounts also have a clear audit report.

The next page on the screen relates to the Residential Institutional Statutory Fund, Caranua. The fund was established in 2013 and oversees the use of cash contributions pledged by the religious congregations to support the needs of survivors of residential institutions child abuse. A fund of approximately €100 million was accumulated and the document refers to a remaining balance of €69.3 million. There statement from the Comptroller and Auditor General refers to statements on internal control and discloses that the board did not have an internal audit function in place during 2014. He states that the board did not carry out the required annual review of its effectiveness of systems and internal controls. Furthermore, weaknesses in the board control over grant payments in 2014 were identified and the statement refers to the steps taken by the board to remedy these witnesses. That is not a clear audit report and I do not want to let this go. I have received correspondence in my constituency clinic from some of the people who have applied for grants but who have been refused. Now that this has been brought before us, I will pass this over to the committee. I call on the Comptroller and Auditor General to comment.