Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We are joined by the Comptroller and Auditor General, Mr. Seamus McCarthy, who is a permanent witness at the committee. He is joined by Ms Maureen Mulligan, deputy director of audit.

We have received apologies from Deputies Deering and Kelly. Are the minutes of 28 March agreed and can they be published? Agreed. Nothing specific arises that will not come up in the course of our discussions on our work programme.

The first items of correspondence are Nos. 2081A and 2085A, which comprise the opening statement from the Secretary General of the Department of Justice and Equality, and a briefing note from Ms Catherine Smith, corporate secretariat, for today's meeting. We note and publish that.

The next items are from Accounting Officers or Ministers following on from previous meetings of this committee. We held over No. 2073B from Dr. Deirdre Keyes, chief executive of Kildare-Wicklow Education and Training Board, KWETB, at our meeting last week. The documentation is dated 21 March and provides a response to information requested by the committee, including notes on independent valuations, meetings of the board held in hotels, leasing of property by the ETB which it previously owned, and details of a rent-free period for the Bray civic centre. Dr. Keyes also refers to a review of all of the ETB's leases and the difficulties it has faced so far in collating that documentation. We noted and published the item the previous day and agreed that we might hold it over to allow people to consider it further.