Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will say that in my reply. There were some cases but we are clear that the problem is not with staff. Perhaps the schools are doing something else. There have been 88 complaints and most of them were uncovered by the Department. While some were not, it is systematically reviewing them. We will note and publish the correspondence, and reply to the person who wrote to us.

No. 2529 is correspondence from Ms Colette Drinan, secretary and director of audit at the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General, dated 7 November 2019, responding to a query regarding vacancies at that office. The information was requested by the secretariat and will feed into our next periodic report. There will be some good news for some of the staff at the office. The letter states that as of 31 October, the office had 181 full-time equivalent members of staff and no vacancies, which was the result of ongoing active recruitment, especially at the trainee auditor grade. Consequently, the office has more trainee auditors than the complement but fewer senior auditors than the complement. It is expected that a number of internal promotion competitions will re-align the numbers at an early stage. There will be some promotions, therefore, for some of the people at the office, which is good to note. It shows that when we examine accounts, even though the Comptroller and Auditor General appears before the committee every week, we do our work straight and ask straight questions, and we received good answers in this case.

No. 2530 is correspondence from Mr. Seán Ó Foghlú, Secretary General of the Department of Education and Skills, providing information following our meeting with Caranua. I specifically asked for details and we have received details of properties. The letter states it was indicated that four properties would transfer to public bodies, the Department or the HSE, as the case may be. The four cases referred to are Cloughmacsimon, County Cork, offered by the Rosminians, who took cash of €101,600; in Portlaoise, the Congregation of the Christian Brothers gave a cheque with a value of €2 million in lieu of property; in Enniscorthy, County Wexford, the Congregation of the Christian Brothers paid €412,665 in cash as opposed to property-----