Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We are joined by the Comptroller and Auditor General, Mr. Seamus McCarthy, who is a permanent witness to the committee. He is joined today by Ms Ruth Foley, deputy director of audit at the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General. Apologies have been received from Deputy Deering.

The first item is the minutes of the meetings of 30 May 2019 and 13 June 2019. Are the minutes agreed? Agreed. We will hold over last week's minutes until next week, when we will have had an opportunity to review them.

As there are no items arising that are not on our agenda, we will proceed to No. 3, which is correspondence received since the last meeting. There are three categories of correspondence. The first category is A, briefing documents and opening statements for today's meeting. Correspondence Nos. 2273A and 2276A from Mr. Jim Breslin, Secretary General of the Department of Health, are the briefing documents and opening statement for today’s meeting. We will note and publish these. Nos. 2272A, and 2275A from Mr. Paul Reid, director general of the HSE, are the briefing documents and opening statement for today’s meeting. We will note and publish these.

The next category is B, correspondence from Accounting Officers and-or Ministers and follow-up to meetings of the committee and other items for publishing. Some items have been held over from previous occasions. No. 2161B is from Mr. Paul O'Toole, chief executive of the Higher Education Authority, dated 10 May. We have held this over three times so far, on 30 May, 13 June and 20 June. It is in regard to the review of the relationship between Cork Institute of Technology and certain named companies and entities which was undertaken by Mazars. We have already noted and published this. Deputy Kelly indicated he might have some observations. I suggest we note and publish this and move on. If the Deputy wants to raise it again-----