Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We want that organisation here that week because there is activity going on, outside of construction, which is under its remit. I refer here to getting patient records systems in place and so on. Children's Health Ireland commenced functioning on 1 January this year but work was being done on that project prior to that. That body has not been before this committee yet but it is a fundamental part of the national children's hospital project.

We have suggested a meeting with Pobal for 12 December. Last week we agreed to have a meeting on the carbon fund, fossil fuel levy and so on. The CSO has produced a report and the Comptroller and Auditor General has a chapter in his report on this issue. We know that well over €3 billion has been collected and the Comptroller and Auditor General has recommended that Departments be required to show how the money that has been collected under the name of the carbon fund has been utilised. The CSO has reported on this and the ESRI has produced two reports on it which have been circulated to members. One of the ESRI reports, published in October, provides a breakdown of the headings under the carbon fund. We will not have a big discussion on it now but I am proposing that as the aforementioned two independent organisations have done much work on the carbon tax collected and how it has been spent, I propose one or possibly two meetings on this issue. At one of the meetings we will talk to the CSO and the ESRI because they are independent of the Department and have done great work on this. We are not going to redo any of their work but it would be very helpful for the public if we have a public discussion on the carbon fund. There is a lack of transparency and the CSO and ESRI have done much work to try to get behind it and have commented on how the funds collected have been used and whether the spending has been detrimental or useful in terms of reducing our carbon emissions. Obviously, we will invite representatives from the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment a fortnight later. We do not have confirmation from these organisations but we will ask the secretariat in November to make the necessary arrangements. We will try to make sure the meetings are not too long because people are under pressure. We should be able to do a nice piece of very important work on the carbon fund in terms of taxes collected and their use, in two meetings. We will confine it to two meetings - one with the CSO and ESRI and the other with the Department. It will be helpful to the public. This is 100% under the remit of this committee. Taxes have been collected for a specific purpose and we want to see how they were utilised in the context of environmental issues. It is 100% under our remit. Are we agreed that the secretariat will come back with the dates as soon as they are confirmed?