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

It is a substantial report. Members might peruse the recommendations and make any suggestions they have.

There is one item of correspondence that was not flagged and arose at an earlier meeting. It is something I raised with the secretariat. I wished to get an update. Members will recall the issue of Perrigo and its settlement with Revenue for €297 million. There was a tax liability of €1.64 billion. It ended up with a write-down of approximately 84%, which was the issue other members and I were concerned about. Correspondence may have been received in recent days but this is before us today. I ask the secretariat to see whether we have received further correspondence or replies on this from Revenue and the Tax Appeals Commission, which we wrote to at the time. If nothing is received by the end of this week, the secretariat might follow up with the Tax Appeals Commission and Revenue seeking an explanation as to why there was an 84% write-down in respect of the €1.64 billion Perrigo was liable for. Is that agreed? Agreed.

The next matter is the work programme. At our meeting of 21 October, we agreed our work programme to the end of the year. It was mentioned earlier that RTÉ was unable to attend today's meeting. As all our meeting slots until the end of the year have been confirmed, the clerk has advised that RTÉ has indicated its availability to reschedule the meeting to 20 January, the next available slot we have. Is it agreed the committee will proceed with that meeting? Agreed.

In respect of our speaking slots, as there are no public engagements, is it agreed that the rotation for today's meeting will be extended to next week, to be fair to members who were selected to be first? Agreed. On 11 November, the Department of Transport will appear before the committee; on 18 November, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment; on 25 November, the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media; on 2 December, the Office of the Revenue Commissioners; on 9 December, the Department of Social Protection, at which members will have an opportunity to raise some of the issues raised today; and on 16 December, the Department of Health. If there are matters members want raised with any of those Departments or bodies, they might flag them with the secretariat.

We have a busy agenda next week with the Department of Transport. The issues relate to the 2020 appropriation account for Vote 31, transport; the motor tax account; from the 2020 report on the accounts of the public services, chapter 5, expenditure and night-vision technology and training for search and rescue; the recently published Comptroller and Auditor General's special report 113, in respect of the procurement of vehicles for the Irish Coast Guard; and our request for information regarding expenditure on the following projects, which is due by tomorrow, namely, MetroLink, the DART extension and underground, BusConnects and the all-Ireland strategic rail review. At our last meeting, we agreed to revisit the work programme for the year later this month. There were two suggestions today, which will be added to the end of the work programme.

That concludes our consideration of the work programme. I propose we will go into private session before adjourning until 9.30 a.m. on Thursday, 11 November 2021, when we will engage with the Department of Transport.