Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We are meeting the Department of Health and the HSE this morning but before that, I have an announcement to make as Chair of the committee. Our committee intends to issue its next periodic report on Tuesday, 9 July. A document has been provided to some members of the media which has been quoted from and referred to as a draft periodic report. The document that has been issued is not a draft of our periodic report, due to be published in two weeks, and it is not an accurate version of what will be published. The document which was quoted from is a document prepared solely by the secretariat with no input from any member of the committee. It was written to assist the committee in its consideration of the matters covered at various meetings over the previous months. The conclusions and recommendations in that document have no status. The document that was circulated had never been considered, discussed or approved by the Committee of Public Accounts. It was a document prepared by the secretariat. The document has no standing with regard to the committee. It is not a draft of a periodic report, just an internal document prepared by the secretariat. We will not circulate any draft versions of our work until we formally launch our report on 9 July.