Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Everybody is very welcome to the meeting. I ask everybody to turn off their mobile phones. That would be appreciated.

In the first session today we looked at the Bord na gCon financial statements for 2015. In this session we will be looking at the 2015 appropriation accounts, Vote 20 for the Garda Síochána, dealing specifically with the internal audit of financial procedures in the Garda College in Templemore. We will confine discussion in the meeting to that matter today. We will deal with the rest of the Vote on 13 July when the Commissioner will be before the committee again. That is a very good date as it is my birthday so I look forward to that. Discussion is confined to a very specific issue and members might bear that in mind. I ask members to co-operate with that direction in their dealings today.

From An Garda Síochána we are joined by Commissioner Nóirín O'Sullivan; Mr. Kenneth Ruane, head of legal affairs; Mr. John Barrett, executive director of human resources and people development; Mr. Joseph Nugent, chief administrative officer, Deputy Commissioner Dónall Ó Cualáin, with responsibility for governance and strategy; Mr. Niall Kelly, head of internal audit and; Mr. Michael Culhane, executive director of finance and services.

From the Department of Justice and Equality we are joined by Mr. John O'Callaghan, assistant secretary of the policing division; Ms Anne Barry and Mr. Paul McDonald, and from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform we are joined by Mr. John Burke. The witnesses are all very welcome.

I advise the witnesses that by virtue of section 17(2)(l) of the Defamation Act 2009, witnesses are protected by absolute privilege in respect of their evidence to this committee. If they are directed by the committee to cease giving evidence in relation to a particular matter and they continue to so do, they are entitled thereafter only to a qualified privilege in respect of their evidence. They are directed that only evidence connected with the subject matter of these proceedings is to be given and they are asked to respect the parliamentary practice to the effect that, where possible, they should not criticise nor make charges against any person, persons or entity, by name or in such a way as to make him, her or it identifiable.

I will first call on the Comptroller and Auditor General to make an opening statement. He is accompanied by Ms Mary Henry, deputy director of audit.