Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We are joined by the Comptroller and Auditor General, Mr. Seamus McCarthy. He is accompanied by Ms Maureen Mulligan, deputy director. Apologies have been received from Deputy Catherine Murphy.

The next item is the minutes of previous meetings. Are the minutes of meetings from 15 May, 16 May, 23 May and 24 May agreed? Agreed. There is one matter arising out of the minutes from the meeting of 24 May. It regards category B correspondence, No. 1277, which we discussed last week. The correspondence in question is from Mr. John McCarthy, Secretary General of the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, and he provided much helpful and useful information regarding unfinished housing estates, the local authority mortgage protection insurance scheme, the local authority mortgage resolutions arrears process and the taking in charge of estates. The resolutions process dealt with the number of repossessions obtained by local authorities. People will have seen the figures, which were quite high in some areas but not in others.

I wish to follow up that letter asking Mr. McCarthy to supply information relating to evictions achieved by local authorities. We have the figure for repossessions involving people with shared ownership loans and mortgages - they are staggering in some counties - but we would like to see the figures for evictions achieved by local authorities. We would also like to see which were done on foot of a court order or otherwise, as the case may be. We know people have been evicted for non-payment of rents and possibly other reasons. It would be useful to get that information for each of the past three years, taking in 2015 to 2017, inclusive. I would like to get the figure from the voluntary housing associations funded by the taxpayer as well. It is a matter we have not touched but when we saw the figure for repossessions by local authorities, the next question would be in respect of tenants in voluntary housing associations and evictions achieved. This takes in local authorities and the approved housing bodies. We should get the information and take it from there when we get it. Is it agreed to seek that additional information? Agreed. Members should understand that it is about following up the excellent information provided on the previous occasion.

The next item on the agenda is correspondence. There are three categories of correspondence. Category A refers to briefing documents and opening statements. No. 1333A is from the office of the chief administrative officer, An Garda Síochána, enclosing the internal audit report of the ICT payments process. We will note and publish this. There was a previous report provided to the committee. No. 1344A is from the acting Garda Commissioner, Mr. Dónall Ó Cualáin, providing his opening statement. We will note and publish that.

The next item is correspondence from category B, correspondence from Accounting Officers and Ministers to follow up previous meetings of the committee. There are a number of items in this category, starting with a letter from Mr. Ciarán Breen of the State Claims Agency, as well as correspondence from the Health Service Executive, HSE. I want to group these together in one discussion as different letters have popped up. We will come to it in a moment but I would like to get the other items of correspondence out of the way. Is that okay?

No. 1329 is correspondence from Mr. Robert Watt, Secretary General of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. Deputy O'Brien had a query about this matter, which regards the contract with the new national lottery operator and assurances given with respect to unclaimed prizes.