Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

As usual, the list of accounts and financial statements will be published as part of our minutes.

Moving to correspondence, as previously agreed, items that were not flagged for discussion for this meeting will continue to be dealt with in accordance with the proposed actions that have been circulated, and decisions taken by the committee on correspondence will be recorded in the minutes of the committee’s meetings and published on the committee’s web page.

The first correspondence members have flagged for discussion is No. 1271 B from Mr. Brendan Gleeson, Secretary General, Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, dated 27 May 2022, providing information requested by the committee regarding the appointment of the CEO of Horse Racing Ireland, HRI. It is proposed to note and publish this correspondence. Is that agreed? Agreed. Deputy Matt Carthy flagged this item for discussion but he is not here right now. He may wish to raise it a future meeting so we will hold it over until then.

The next flagged correspondence is No. 1272 B from Ms Oonagh McPhillips, Secretary General, Department of Justice, dated 24 May 2022, providing information requested by the committee arising from our meeting with the Department of Justice on 28 April 2022. There was a back and forth discussion about where responsibility lay. Regarding question No. 3 and non-compliant contracts that have been running for longer than five years, I suggest that we request clarity as to whether the four non-compliant contracts referenced continue to be rolled over or are now in compliance. Essentially, responsibility moved from the Department of Justice to the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. Apparently responsibility transfers with the files so we cannot ask for further input from the Department of Justice but the Secretary General of the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth could be asked to clarify the rationale for finding the contracts were non-compliant. It would be useful to do that. Apart from anything else, this is probably likely to happen again if there is a change in remit and it would be useful to build a bit of institutional memory in relation to how that works and how that conclusion was reached.

Question No. 7 included a request for sight of the valuations relating to the Thornton Hall site but this request is not addressed in the reply. It is proposed to reiterate the request for sight of the valuations themselves. Similarly, question No. 13 is not answered. We requested the recommended number of domestic violence refuge beds in the State, as per the Istanbul Convention, and how it compares to the current number of such beds in the State but no such information is given. It is proposed to note and publish this correspondence and to request further information as outlined. Is that agreed? Agreed.

I flagged this item along with Deputy Carthy. On question No. 5, I got a reply from the Department recently that relates to this. I received a reply on 1 June having sought the information more than a year ago. The information is quite useful. For example, the estimated outstanding liability related to the Irish Prison Service prisoner personal injury claims at 28 February 2021 was €63 million. Some of that is related to in-cell sanitation. I am happy to provide this document to the committee. There is no point in repeating all of it but we might just seek an update on it. We can hold it over to next week and seek an update on it.

On CCTV and local authorities, I think legislation is required. I am referring to item six on page six of the reply, which relates to community-based CCTV grants. The question arises as to who is the data controller: is it the local authority or An Garda Síochána? It would be worth asking the Department if that has been defined. I think legislation might be needed and if so-----