Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The next items of correspondence are No. 797B from the Comptroller and Auditor General and No. 800B from the Department of Defence. The item was raised here the previous day. A technical issue arose due to the audit. We will ask the Comptroller and Auditor General to give us a short report. It is a technical issue and we do not need a major discussion. However, there is a formal process whereby the Committee of Public Accounts has to approve a matter highlighted by the Comptroller and Auditor General. I will explain it briefly because we do not need to have a detailed discussion on it.

Last week the Comptroller and Auditor General raised a technical matter with the committee in respect of Vote 35 - Army Pensions and an excess of €23,000 in that Vote. As a result of the overspend, approval of Dáil Éireann was required for what is known as an excess Vote. It is a technical issue. Last week, we agreed the Comptroller and Auditor General would submit a briefing note to the committee and we requested a note from the Department of Defence on the matter. These are the correspondence items I mentioned, No. 797B and No. 800B, respectively. Is it agreed that we note these two items? Agreed. Will Mr. McCarthy comment briefly?