Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We are dealing with matters relating to housing, planning and local government in respect of Vote 34 of the Appropriation Accounts. Before we proceed I wish to make one remark about our work programme. The Secretary General of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform had written to us saying he was available for 7 March. We confirmed this morning that he will attend the meeting on that day. I understand the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach is also seeking his attendance before it. No doubt he will be able to attend both committees at a suitable time interval. We look forward to seeing him on 7 March.

In terms of Accounting Officers, recently we had the Secretary General of the Department of Health before the committee dealing with the children’s hospital and he also went to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health on another day. It is normal that Secretaries General should attend their line committees and the Committee of Public Accounts. It is not a case of one or the other. We are proceeding on the basis of his letter indicating that he will attend on 7 March.

This afternoon we have representatives from the Irish Council for Social Housing and the approved housing bodies interim regulatory committee to help our consideration of the housing Vote, which we will be examining next week. Neither of the bodies are accountable to the Committee of Public Accounts but are here to help our understanding in our examination of the Department's vote. I stress the point that they are here voluntarily to assist us in our understanding of the housing issue.

We are joined by the Comptroller and Auditor General, Mr. Seamus McCarthy, who is a permanent witness to the committee. He is joined by Ms Deirdre Quaid, deputy director of audit. From the Irish Council for Social Housing we have Dr. Donal McManus, chief executive officer, who is joined by Ms Tina Donaghy, Mr. John Hannigan and Ms Karen Murphy.

From the approved housing body interim regulatory committee we are joined by Dr. Mary Lee Rhodes and she is accompanied by Ms Susanna Lyons and Mr. Pat Fitzpatrick.

I remind members, witnesses and those in the Public Gallery that all mobile phones must be switched off entirely. That means putting them on airplane mode, as merely putting them on silent mode will still interfere with the recording system.

I wish to advise the witnesses that by virtue of section 17(2)(l) of the Defamation Act 2009, witnesses are protected by absolute privilege in respect of their evidence to this committee. If they are directed by the committee to cease giving evidence in relation to a particular matter and they continue to so do, they are entitled thereafter only to a qualified privilege in respect of their evidence. They are directed that only evidence connected with the subject matter of these proceedings is to be given and they are asked to respect the parliamentary practice to the effect that, where possible, they should not criticise nor make charges against any person or entity, by name or in such a way as to make him, her or it identifiable.

Some of those present may have time commitments so we will take the two opening statements and then we will allow committee members to ask questions. I invite Dr. Mary Lee Rhodes to make her opening statement, followed by Dr. Donal McManus.