Imelda Munster (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I refer to the issue of staff mess. The Committee of Public Accounts made a recommendation at the beginning of 2019 on this but again it appears from the Comptroller and Auditor General's report that the Government's advice to the mess committees does not constitute a formal agreement. It does not, for example, set out that the Prison Service can get assurance that none of the food used in the provision of staff meals is a charge on the prisons Vote, that good accounting records are maintained or that prices are set at a level to recover costs. That recommendation was made by this committee almost two years ago. We are talking here about a mess committee.

We are in here year on year having to spend considerable time discussing these matters. I do not know whether the witnesses feel it is not an important issue, that it will go away or that we will not keep coming back to it. However, it is important in the sense that there are so many questions and so many irregularities are arising. The substantive issues the Committee of Public Accounts has raised concerns about have not been dealt with. Why is that?