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 Josephine Mooney, deputy director of audit, and Mr. Ronan McCabe, senior auditor. Apologies have been received from Deputies Deering, Jonathan O'Brien and O'Connell.

The first item is the minutes of the meeting of 16 May. Are they agreed? Agreed. On matters arising, everything that we might want to discuss will come up during the course of the meeting.

There are three categories of correspondence. Category A deals with briefing material and opening statements. Nos. 2187 and 2190 from Mr. Derek Moran, Secretary General at the Department of Finance, are the briefing documents and opening statements for today's meeting. We note and publish them.

Category B comprises correspondence from Accounting Officers and Ministers, and follow-up responses to previous meetings. We will note and publish these. Held over from the last meeting is the minute from the Minister for Finance, and Public Expenditure and Reform, regarding our periodic report No. 4. I propose we hold it over until the end of our discussion on correspondence. I want to clear that document but we will go through the other items of correspondence first.

No. 2160 from Mr. Maurice Buckley, chairman of the Office of Public Works, provides information requested by the committee on the leaking roof in Schull Garda station.

The OPW states that there was no obligation on the construction company to fix the roof as the six-year liability period had elapsed. I propose we forward a copy of this correspondence to the person who raised the matter with us. We will note and publish this.

The next item of correspondence is No. 2161 B from Mr. Paul O'Toole, chief executive officer of the Higher Education Authority, dated 10 May 2019, enclosing the report regarding the review of the relationship between Cork Institute of Technology and certain named companies and entities, which was undertaken by Mazars. We will note and publish this but we will also discuss it now.