Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

All those in attendance are very welcome. No apologies have been received. The Comptroller and Auditor General, Mr. Seamus McCarthy, is a permanent witness to the committee and he is attending remotely.

As we return to participate in committee meetings in person, I ask members and all in attendance to exercise personal responsibility and to protect themselves and others from the risk of contracting Covid-19. They are strongly advised to leave at least one vacant seat between themselves and others attending and to adopt good hygiene practices. Those in attendance should always maintain an appropriate level of social distancing during and after meetings. Masks should be worn at all times during meetings except when speaking. I ask for co-operation with the guidelines.

Members participating remotely must continue to do so from within the precincts of Leinster House due to the constitutional requirement that in order to participate in public meetings members must be physically present within the confines of the Parliament.

The business before us today is as follows: minutes; accounts and statements; correspondence; work programme; and any other business. Before we proceed, I propose that we reserve 20 minutes at the end of the meeting to go into private session to deal with sensitive correspondence and housekeeping matters. Is that agreed? Agreed.

The first business is the minutes of the meetings of the 16, 21 and 23 September. They have been circulated to members. Do members wish to raise any matters in relation to the minutes? Are the minutes agreed? Agreed. As usual, the minutes will be published on the committee's web page.

The next business is the four sets of accounts and financial statements that were laid before the Dáil between 20 September and 24 September. I ask the Comptroller and Auditor General to address the accounts and statements before opening the discussion to the floor.