Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Under the Act, the Minister has the responsibility to give permission or not for each contract for leases. It is not clear whatsoever if the Minister gave permission in this case. That is the question we have asked. I do not know where that answer is. We have got answers to parliamentary questions. We have got an answer from Caranua which is totally and utterly confusing. The message from the committee was that the agency should not waste survivors’ moneys on signing a rent agreement.

The second message was whether the Minister had given permission. At this point, having read it, does the Office of Public Works, OPW, own the building in which Caranua working? It is not clear. One is pushing the other. The OPW is talking about a signing a new lease on behalf of Caranua where it is the third party as it were. Why is the OPW signing a new agreement? Does it not own the building? I have no idea what is going on. The reason for that is not through any lack of diligence. I have read about it and tabled questions about it. I have no idea. I do know when Caranua was here; it said it did not pay rent. I asked the Comptroller and Auditor General’s office if Caranua paid rent. It said it did not pay rent but was about to because it had to move. Now it looks like it was obliged to pay rent of over €100,000 from 2016 onwards. Now, it will pay even more rent. On top of that, it seems to me it was outfitting premises.

At this point, I am appealing to the Chairman that this is a limited fund. There is absolute upset over the way the survivors have been dealt with. We know the agency’s chairperson said when he went into the organisation that it was a mess and a shambles. There is currently no board. Its term finished in March and its last meeting was on 23 March or 24 March. This organisation is functioning without any oversight. It would seem it has delegated permission to the chief executive officer and the chairperson to sign a lease. I have gone through the minutes and it is extraordinary at a time when the board was more worried about the level of pay-outs rather than their own costs.

This committee is of the opinion that Caranua should not be paying rent. We asked it to clarify and not to sign a lease. We do not know if it is value for money. No business case was ever presented through any of the minutes. We have asked the Department of Education and Skills to clarify what is going on.