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

I believe that when it gets into the stratosphere, people start losing perspective. Otherwise, this correspondence provides detailed responses to 20 questions arising from our meeting with the Department, which is welcome. I propose that we note and publish this correspondence and that we make it available to the relevant sectoral committees as there is a wide range of information contained in it. Is that agreed? Agreed.

Looking through some of this material, we may hold it as Deputy Carthy wished to come in on this item. There is just one thing that it would be useful to go back to the Department on, namely, No. 6, on page 12 of the reply, which refers to progress to date on the separation of Irish Water from Ervia, where it states that Irish Water’s borrowings are likely to be impacted by that separation. There are a number of questions there on things that jumped out at me.

No 1290B is from Mr. John McKeon, Secretary General, Department of Social Protection, dated 2 June 2022 and providing further information requested by the committee regarding the investigation of contractors engaged by RTÉ. That was the item I referred to earlier and is linked to the RTÉ item of correspondence. I had flagged that item for discussion, as had Deputy Munster. I hate to add to our workload for next week but if it is a question that the Deputies are not here next week, we can move on from it.

The next category of correspondence is in category C, which is correspondence from and related to private individuals and any other correspondence.

No. 1268C is from an individual on behalf of Louth Environmental Group dated 25 May 2022 and enclosing correspondence regarding funding for coastal greenways in Dundalk, County Louth. It is proposed to note this item, which is addressed to the clerk to the Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach. Is that agreed? Agreed. Deputy Munster flagged that item and we will take the same approach as with other correspondence already referred to, if the committee is agreeable to that.

Finally, a number of further items of correspondence have been received in respect to the closure of Owenacurra Centre, County Cork, namely, Nos. 1277, 1280, 1287 and 1291. Following receipt of correspondence on this matter last year, we wrote to the HSE and the matter was raised with this body when it appeared before the committee earlier this year.

The Joint Committee on Health has also previously advised that it was examining this issue and had visited the centre. To avoid duplicating the work of that committee and because the decision to close the centre is a policy decision more appropriate to the remit of that committee, we did not consider the matter further. While I understand that this is a terrible situation for some of the residents and their families, I am not sure that we can assist in any meaningful way in preventing the closure of the centre. I will open the floor to any members who might wish to address this issue.