Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I think we will ask the HEA and the fact that we are doing so might give it a little bit of added impetus, but we must be mindful of the fact that the Comptroller and Auditor General has looked at the issue and he feels there is nothing in it for him to bring to our attention. We will send the matter to the HEA for it to deal with it and to keep us updated on progress. Is that agreed? Agreed.

The next item is correspondence dated 9 November, No. 853C, from Ian Carter, chief executive of Beaumont Hospital, in regard to compliance with procurement requirements. Details are provided of breaches of the requirements and the CEO points out that there is ongoing work to formalise what had been historical relationships and to reduce the level of non-compliant expenditure in the future. There is a detailed letter which emerged from us noting breaches of procurement rules in its annual accounts. I will just refer to one sentence in regard to Noel Recruitment and the sum of €365,000. It was pointed out that this recruitment is not fully subject to the procurement regulations as it is an Annex II B service under the Directive 2014/18/ EC and an Article 74 service under the Directive 2014/24/EU. It is not considered a cross-border interest and that is why it probably did not advertise it on that basis, but it anticipates that it will bring such matters into line. There seems to be a significant amount of technical issues involved but we will note it and we will keep after all those organisations in regard to non-compliance with procurement issues in the future. We will note that.

The next item is No. 855C, correspondence dated 24 October 2017 from Deputy Brendan Smith, forwarding a resolution from Monaghan County Council for the Committee of Public Accounts to investigate Eirgrid's financial expenditure for the past 16 years. We received a similar resolution from Monaghan County Council in January. Eirgrid does not come within the remit of the Committee of Public Accounts as it is not audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General. It is a commercial semi-State operation. At the time we requested a note from the Minister on the matter and forwarded the reply to Monaghan County Council. We also wrote to the sectoral committee which I believe had an engagement with Eirgrid in May of this year. I also understand from the clerk that that committee has received further correspondence from Monaghan County Council in the past month. I propose that we write to Monaghan County Council and include Deputy Brendan Smith in the correspondence, enclosing copies of previous correspondence, pointing out that the sectoral committee has more latitude than the PAC in this area. Is that agreed? Agreed.

The next item is No. 854C, correspondence dated 24 October 2017 from the Rehab group, in regard to the funding of section 39 organisations to pay staff in line with public sector increases. Rehab claims that funding has not been provided to restore pay to their employees even though the employees took the same cuts as public sector employees during the austerity years and that its ability to retain staff is affected. This was a matter which was discussed at our recent meeting with the HSE. That exact point was well discussed with the HSE and it is an issue for the National Treatment Purchase Fund and nursing homes as well. The costs for some organisations are increasing but that is not being matched by an increase in funding from the State body. Can we note the item because we did discuss it on the previous occasion with the HSE?