Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We are joined by the Comptroller and Auditor General, Mr. Seamus McCarthy, a permanent witness to the committee. Mr. McCarthy is accompanied by his colleague, Mr. Paul Southern, deputy director of audit. No apologies have been received in respect of today's meeting. Are the minutes of the meeting of 13 October 2016 agreed? Agreed.

As there are no further matters arising from the minutes, we will move on straightaway to correspondence. I refer to correspondence items 105A.1, 105A.2 and 105A.3 and 11A. These relate to briefing material and the opening statement from the Department of Social Protection for today's meeting. Is it agreed to note them? Agreed.

Next is category B correspondence from Accounting Officers and Ministers following up on previous meetings. The first item in this regard is 100B, a letter received from Mr. Denis Leamy, CEO of Pobal, in response to a request for information on Pobal's 2015 financial statements which identified irregular payments estimated at €500,000 in respect of community child care subvention. The correspondence outlines that there is a Garda investigation into this case. It also details key controls put in place by Pobal to insure that such instances do not happen again. Is it agreed to note the correspondence, in particular the fact of the Garda investigation? Agreed.

I ask that all mobile phones be put in airplane mode as placing them in silent mode means they will still interfere with the recording system.

The next item is 104B, a letter from Mr. John O'Sullivan, commissioner of valuation, regarding the valuation of fisheries. The letter states that the committee will be kept informed of any planned revaluation. It is a matter for the Valuation Office as well. We will note that.

The next item, 107B, was received from Mr. Gerry Quinn, chief operations officer of the Central Bank. It is a follow-up to the meeting of 21 September 2016 on retention payments in the Central Bank. Can we note that? The bank gave us the overall figure at the meeting and the letter sets out some further breakdown of that.

The next item is 110B, correspondence received from Mr. Derek Moran, Secretary General of the Department of Finance, responding to requests for a meeting with the Department on 10 November. Mr. Moran has nominated the second secretary, Ms Ann Nolan, to represent him, subject to the approval of the committee. Ms Nolan will be accompanied by Mr. Declan Reid, senior banking specialist, and Mr. Des Carville, head of the shareholding management unit. In fairness, we must acknowledge that Mr. Derek Moran was not in the Department at any time during the period relating to Project Eagle and that the people who are to attend are those who are most appropriate to answer questions. Is that agreed? Agreed.

The next item is 112B, correspondence received from NAMA in respect of Project Eagle. This is important. The correspondence relates to the release of communications between Lazard and NAMA on the loan-sale process as requested by the committee. Lazard has agreed to this on condition that the committee does not publish the correspondence as part of its Project Eagle report or otherwise. We will proceed to consider the documents in private session and agree to the request. We will obtain and deal with the information but we will not be able to publish any of it as part of our work without Lazard's consent. We can acknowledge within the report that we received it and will be aware of the information. However, Lazard is asking that its correspondence not be published because it is confidential between it and NAMA. Can we agree to that?