Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Comptroller and Auditor General, Mr. Seamus McCarthy, who is a permanent witness to the committee. He is joined today by Ms Orla Duane, deputy director of audit at the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General. Apologies have been received from Deputies Deering and Connolly. Before we commence our main business, there are several matters to be discussed in private session, which we will do after we have dealt with correspondence.

The first item on the agenda is the minutes of the meeting of 30 May, which I propose to hold over to the next meeting, when we can deal with any matters arising. Is that agreed? Agreed.

We will now deal with correspondence received since our last meeting two weeks ago, some of which will be of immense interest to members. There are three categories of correspondence. The first, category A, comprises Nos. 2225A, 2226A and 2230A, from Dr. Fergal Lynch, Secretary General at the Department of Children and Youth Affairs. These are the briefing documents and opening statements for today's meeting. Is it agreed that we note and publish them? Agreed.

Category B is correspondence from Accounting Officers and-or Ministers, follow-up material from previous meetings of the committee and other items for publication. The first item of correspondence in this category is No. 2161B from Mr. Paul O'Toole, chief executive officer of the Higher Education Authority, dated 10 May 2019, enclosing a report undertaken by Mazars into its review of the relationship between Cork Institute of Technology and certain named companies and entities. At our last meeting we agreed to note and publish this report and hold it over for further consideration. We had some discussion on it, with particular reference to situations where people are employed by the institute of technology and also receive some payments from companies in which the institute has a shareholding. The report makes several serious recommendations, including that there be proper agreements in place for such persons, that those arrangements be officially recorded and that assurances be given that their main work with the institute of technology will not be compromised by their additional duties. Our discussion is on the public record and members are free to raise the matter any time we deal with related topics. Is it agreed that we note and publish the report and move on, or would members like to hold it over?