Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

That is the accountant coming out in me. Our work programme is on the screen. We are getting there. Today we had the Garda Síochána in and there are a few comments I want to make. Next Thursday, we have the Revenue Commissioners in on corporation tax receipts, chapter 20 of the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General, and the question of dealing with corporation tax. We decided two weeks ago, as part of assisting the committee in our understanding of how multinationals understand our taxation system, that we would invite Apple, Google, Citibank, JP Morgan, GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer to appear before the committee. The letters were issued this week inviting those six companies to send their most senior representatives to the committee early in 2018. We cannot pencil in dates or anything like that. We will talk about scheduling meetings over a couple of days if we can get them to come in on a particular date. Those letters of invitation have gone out this week and we wait to hear from them in due course.

The following week we have the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection which will be straightforward. It is a very big Department and there are lots of questions to ask. The following Thursday, 14 December, we are starting into chapter 3 of the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General dealing with the cost of banking stabilisation. IBRC liquidation has been mentioned for special consideration as part of that meeting.

I am most keen that instead of having public sessions here and that being the end of it, the Committee of Public Accounts should draft a summary of our meetings and any conclusions and recommendations we make. Since we came back at the end of September, we are being assisted by an additional staff member who is now carrying out drafting work on a report of every meeting we have had and the key topics covered. I will summarise them now in a minute. That has been done since we came back in September with a view to producing a report on our work every so often. It is part of our duty when we find something, not to walk out the door but to put it in writing in a report, send it to the Minister and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to get a formal response and follow through.

On 28 September we had HIQA in. On 5 October, we had the IDA in. On 12 October, we had Transport Infrastructure Ireland in. On 19 October, we had Tusla in. On 27 October, we had the HSE to deal with section 38 and section 39. We have dealt with the issue of Garda stations. I think we have nearly concluded it today. The secretariat is now working on the report and we will have it next month. The reports will not be very extensive. They will be a short chapter to summarise each of the meetings and recommendations. We will have an update with a view to the following week having a look at a draft report with those six chapters in it. We might then sign off on it a week or so later, probably with a view to launching it in early January. We have enough on our plate between now and Christmas. There is no point in launching a report Christmas week. We could nearly get it put to bed. I do not think the report will be too complicated. Some people will be interested in some chapters and some people will be interested in others.

We might have a full briefing at next week's meeting, even if we have to do it in private session, with a view to having a preliminary draft ready as soon as possible. I have seen the modus operandi of the secretariat and it is starting to put a nice, concise report together for us. The plan then would be to have a report on the five or six meetings between mid November and Christmas one month later. After every five or six meetings we need to do a short report so that people can see the outcome of those meetings. That is where we are at and I do no think there is anything else to be discussed now. The issue of RTÉ has been mentioned and we will talk about it next week. Deputy Cullinane brought it up-----