Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We are joined today by the Comptroller and Auditor General, Mr. Seamus McCarthy, who is a permanent witness to the committee. He is joined by Ms Mahin Fitzpatrick, senior auditor. We will meet the Revenue Commissioners today and a number of chapters in the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General relate to Revenue. We will also have a private meeting in the afternoon. I suggest, therefore, that for reasons of time we confine our discussion on the business of the committee to one hour. We will go as far as we can and commence our meeting with the Revenue at 10 a.m. That is agreed.

Apologies have been received from Deputies Pat Deering and Peter Burke. I will hold over the minutes of the previous meeting for the moment. Arising from the previous meeting, the clerk will circulate wording tomorrow, for consideration next week, regarding our recommendation for a Dáil debate on the winding down of the National Asset Management Agency, NAMA. We agreed last week that there should be a Dáil debate on the issue but we have to table a formal motion, which must be circulated to members for their consideration in advance before it can be agreed. We can agree the motion for a Dáil debate on NAMA's expected surplus next week.

No. 3 is correspondence. The first category is category A, briefing documents and the opening statement for today's meeting. No. 1709A is from Mr. Niall Cody and encloses a briefing document. No. 1723A is the opening statement for today's meeting. We will note and publish these documents.

The next category of correspondence is category B, correspondence from Accounting Officers and Ministers in follow-up to meetings of the Committee of Public Accounts and other correspondence for publishing. We will hold over a number of matters from the previous meeting. We got through a significant number of items last week. I hope we will deal with all of them next week.

No. 1677B is from Chief Superintendent Dermot Mann of An Garda Síochána and is dated 31 October 2018. It provides information requested by the committee on the operation of CCTV by local authorities. It sets out the relevant legislation and statutory instruments and refers to the CCTV advisory committee and community CCTV schemes. I know of a number of local authorities where CCTV schemes have not yet been finalised. Given that the letter will be of interest to many people, we will note and publish it.

No. 1693B is from Ms Orlaith McBride, director of the Arts Council, dated 1 November 2018, enclosing an information note requested by the committee providing details in respect of matters raised in the audit opinion of the Comptroller and Auditor General regarding the 2017 financial statements. Significant issues arise in this regard and the one which attracted our attention in the first instance was the circumstances that gave rise to €196,000 in funding being provided to an outside agency that went into liquidation. The Arts Council has provided a detailed and comprehensive response. I note that it dealt with the organisation in question, Filmbase, for 30 years. We can understand, therefore, why the money continued to be paid each year. The council did not get the audited accounts it sought for 2016. It wanted the matter examined by its internal auditors but shortly afterwards Filmbase into liquidation. The Arts Council is dealing with the liquidator to try to recover the moneys but it is listed as a trade creditor. It made payments to some of those who should have been paid by Filmbase to avoid them being left high and dry. It is doing all it can at this stage to recover the money. When dealing with liquidators, people have to wait and see, as we all know.

No. 1698B is from Ms Katherine Licken, Secretary General of the Department of Culture, Heritage and Gaeltacht, dated 6 November 2018, providing details requested by the committee on the performance delivery agreement between the Department and Galway 2020. I propose we note and publish that correspondence.