Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We will hold it over for next week. Also held over from last week's meetings is No. 2231B from Mr. John McKeon, Secretary General of the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection, dated 7 June, and providing an update to an inquiry the committee made in regard to a protected disclosure regarding St. Munchin's community centre, Limerick. We had received anonymous correspondence in regard to this matter. Mr. McKeon advises that an investigation of the issues raised was undertaken by the Department under the Protected Disclosures Act 2014. The alleged issues related to funding provided by the Department under the job initiative scheme.

The Department concluded its examination of the issues raised and a number of areas for minor improvement were identified, including governance, purchasing control and attendance records. This was accepted by the management of St. Munchin's. The Department has liaised with and met those involved in the job initiative scheme to discuss these issues. We will note and publish the correspondence. Is that agreed? Agreed.

The next item is No. 2244B, correspondence, dated 11 June 2019, receivedfrom Mr. Crónan Goodman, private secretary to the Secretary General of the Department of Justice and Equality, in response to an inquiry from the secretariat about the Irish Prison Service. The information was requested to feed into our periodic report and has to do with a procurement issue. It is being considered as part of our consideration of the periodic report. Is it agreed that we note and publish the correspondence? Agreed.

The next item is No. 2246B correspondence, dated 11 June 2019, from the Department of Justice and Equality in response to an inquiry made by the committee about the operation of CCTV systems by local authorities. We had previously received responses from the Department and An Garda Síochána. The Department is now forwarding a response from the County and City Management Association, CCMA. The Department advised in December 2018 that 28 of the 31 local authorities had undertaken the role of data controller for specific community schemes. The CCMA's response highlights an important distinction between local authority CCTV systems which are utilised for the purpose of exercising law enforcement powers and community-based CCTV schemes that typically are operated for the purpose of securing public order and safety in public places. Essentially, there are three items of correspondence, the first of which contains subsections (1) to (4), inclusive. The second is the actual response from the CCMA in October submitted to the Department which it has made available to us. I ask those with an interest in this matter to note that we are putting this correspondence on our website. Is it agreed that it be noted and published? Agreed. I highlight that of all the local authorities, only one - Laois County Council - operated a CCTV system for the purpose of exercising law enforcement power or a community-based CCTV system for the purpose of securing public safety without Pobal CCTV grant funding or grant funding under the Department scheme.

The next item is No. 2254B, correspondence, dated 17 June 2019, received from Mr. Peter Wood of the Irish Prison Service, providing further details requested by the secretariat of the breakdown for non-compliant procurement in the 2017 appropriation account of the Irish Prison Service. We will note and publish this correspondence and incorporate it into our next periodic report as being relevant. We will ask for specific details of non-compliant procurement. In the case of many of the reasons given, those supplying the particular service were the only ones in a position to do so. The equipment was installed and in the interests of consistency people wanted to deal with the same supplier. It was a significant issue. In other cases, people were awaiting finalisation of a centralised tender arrangement with the Office of Government Procurement, but in the meantime they proceeded with contracts at local level.

The next item is No. 2262B, correspondence, dated 20 June 2019, received from the Secretary General’s office in the Department of Finance, advising that the Department is working on its responses to the 16 items on which information was requested by the committee following its meeting on 30 May. It is expected that we will receive a full reply in the first week of July. We will note the correspondence and await the full response.

The next item is No. 2265B, correspondence, dated 20 June 2019, received from Ms Mary Donohoe, Office of the Director General, Environmental Protection Agency, providing further information requested by the committee on the availability of data for water testing. The EPA advises that Irish drinking water is at low risk of containing illicit and legal drugs because the majority of wastewater discharges in Ireland occur in estuaries which discharge into the sea and are, therefore, downstream of drinking water abstraction points. This environmental issue will be of concern to many. I want to read one or two sentences from Ms Donohoe's letter. The issue was raised by Deputy O'Connell. The response deals only with drinking water. Ms Donohoe states: "Irish Water has a comprehensive annual drinking water monitoring programme..." Essentially, if there is a problem, it has to notify the EPA. She further states:

The associated annual monitoring reports can be accessed on the EPA’s website ... Irish drinking water is at low risk of containing Illicit and/or legal drugs because the majority of wastewater discharges ... occur in the estuarine ... and are therefore downstream of drinking water abstractions and, hence, are not included in the routine drinking water monitoring programme. Therefore, EPA does not hold any data in relation to specific illicit and/or legal drugs in Irish water supplies.

We will ask for the issue to be clarified in respect of bathing water because if illicit and/or legal drugs are discharged into estuaries which dischargin into the sea, it may have implications for the quality of bathing water. We accept that the EPA is stating it may not affect drinking water, but we would like the matter to be clarified. If it is not checking for it in bathing water, we will suggest it consider doing so. We will ask for a response on the monitoring programme for bathing water. Is that agreed? Agreed.

The next item is No. 2266B, correspondence, dated 20 June 2019, received from Ms Dee Forbes, director general of RTÉ, enclosing further information on the ongoing review of contracts. RTÉ states it will continue the review into the second half of 2019 in a sequenced manner. I know that Deputy Cullinane will want to speak about this item.