Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Those are good points. The next item is No. 759C, correspondence from Catherine Murphy enclosing correspondence sent to several members of the committee on an individual making a complaint against a commercial bank relating to overcharging. Members of the committee will agree that overcharging by banks is a serious matter. In this case the bank is not in public ownership and, therefore, it is not within the remit of the committee to make specific inquiries. I propose that we advise the correspondent accordingly and suggest he contact the Financial Services Ombudsman because that is where one goes with an individual complaint. I think that is the correct procedure to take in this situation.

The next item is No. 760C, correspondence dated 15 September from an individual regarding the management of resources in the carer's leave section of the Department of Social Protection. Deputy Cullinane brought this matter to the committee. I propose that we hold it over because he is not here. We will defer this matter.

The matters raised strike me as extremely serious. While I propose to refer the matter to the Department for response, before we do that we may need to liaise with the individual and, perhaps, get some legal advice on the matter in case it could be interpreted as a protected disclosure. As the individual is an employee of the Department, he may need protection under the Protected Disclosures Act. We must be mindful of that. I suggest we return to this matter next week following consultation with the parliamentary legal adviser in case there is a protected disclosures issue part of this correspondence. Is that agreed? Agreed.

We will come back to that when we get the advice.

The next item is No. 761 (c) dated 20 September, relating to birth certificate fraud. The purpose of the correspondence, which was sent to a number of Oireachtas email addresses, is not clear and does not relate specifically to any institutions or organisations in Ireland. We will just note that as we have no further action to take. Correspondence item No. 762, dated 14 September, from an individual who resigned from An Garda Síochána in 2013 alleges bullying. I propose that we write to the correspondent to advise that the matter is not within the remit of this committee and refer the individual to the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC. That is the first port of call. This committee is not the first port of call on such matters. The next item of correspondence, No. 767 (c), dated 21 September, relates to public parking in the Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council area by Garda vehicles. I propose to request an information note from the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government. Essentially, the correspondent has complained that members of An Garda Síochána often park in an area and do not put money into the parking meter. We will await a response to that matter. I will probably get into trouble for smiling while reading out that item.

Item No. 768, dated 25 September, is from an individual in response to correspondence that was forwarded to him regarding the Irish Prison Service following last week's meeting. The individual is frustrated at the lack of action in relation to the external review until the WRC completes its work in November. While this is understandable, we will have to await the outcome ourselves. Essentially, the matter went to the external reviewer under a protected disclosure. The individual is now in the WRC with the Prison Service. We have written to the Prison Service asking for a progress report but the service has said that the matter is now with the WRC and until that body has completed its consideration, the Prison Service is not in a position to revert to this committee. That is not unreasonable and we will just have to wait until November. We would like to see things move more quickly but we will have to wait until the WRC has dealt with the matter.