Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Okay. We will check up on that. I thank the Comptroller and Auditor General.

No. 458C is correspondence dated 2 May from Shannon Protection Alliance requesting the appearance of a report writer before the committee. We decided at last week's meeting that this is a matter more suitable to the Joint Committee on Planning, Housing, Community and Local Government, as it is about a proposed plan that it has been examining. Is it agreed to note that? Agreed. That is noted.

No. 465C, dated 28 April 2017, is from an individual who refers to Teagasc. The correspondence states that if, in his opinion, the grievance procedure had operated correctly in Teagasc there would have been no need for the matter to go to the Rights Commissioner or the Labour Court. However, the fact is that it did and both of these dismissed the person’s claim. The matter is now ten years old and I understand that this individual has retired from Teagasc. I accept that he still feels aggrieved but it is not for the committee to deal with such individual cases or reopen a case that has received a hearing through all of the proper mechanisms available. I propose that we write to the individual informing him that we cannot take his case further. I ask the secretariat and the Parliamentary Legal Adviser to draft an appropriate letter. Is that agreed? Agreed.

Nos. 466C(i) and (ii) and 473C are two items of correspondence dated 8 May 2017. They are from an individual who has contacted the committee many times on a wards of court issue. She claims, with regard to losses sustained by the wards of court fund, that the State should carry these. She cites a meeting of the Committee of Public Accounts held on March 2001 where the then Secretary General of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform gave evidence to that effect to the committee. She enclosed a copy of the transcript and I propose that we forward a copy of her correspondence to the Department of Justice and Equality for a response.

A response to the document was submitted by the individual on the Aon Hewitt Report of the Wards of Court Investment Scheme Spectrum Growth Fund, which was forwarded by us to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform some months ago. The clerk has informed me that the report is expected within the next week. We will hear back on that and we will also write to the Department of Justice and Equality because the wards of court issue continues.

No. 469C is further correspondence from a firm of solicitors, dated 8 May, on a client who seeks to address the committee in connection with the Grace issue and the standard of care provided by the HSE. This item follows on from our discussion at last week's meeting. We await a response from the HSE on final questions that were submitted following last week's meeting. What do members propose we should do? The whistleblower has requested a private meeting with the committee to discuss the issues. We have already decided that Mr. Tony O'Brien will be invited back here to discuss the issues. I remember reading the letter and I think her letter dealt with public procurement issues, which fall within our remit. We will not stray into the care issue because it will be dealt with by the commission. The person referred to procurement issues that may be part of the commission's terms of reference.