Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We have mentioned the one item of correspondence which I want to deal with. It is No. 2352C from Brian Lynch and Associates, dated 19 July 2019, requesting the committee make inquiries to the Comptroller and Auditor General about the special report of 2017 regarding the provision of school transport. The matters related to the accounts of Bus Éireann, which are not examined by the Comptroller and Auditor General. There is quite a debate here about whether school transport worked on a cost recovery basis. There was a suggestion that it always did but it became clear recently that Bus Éireann had a surplus in that area, which has now been moved back to support school transport in future years. The essence of this issue was that Mr. Lynch had been involved in several court cases against Bus Éireann and the State related to this. We are going to note and publish this letter since it relates to the audit report of the Comptroller and Auditor General. Mr. Lynch mentions the report and the cost recovery. He asks if the Comptroller and Auditor General will confirm that cost recovery was not the correct basis, notwithstanding that he has issued the report, and that perhaps a profit was made on it when the Department told us that it believed there was no profit, just cost recovery. Can Mr. McCarthy comment on the letter and the request?