Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 23 June 2022

Public Accounts Committee

2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 3 - Central Government Funding of Local Authorities

9:30 am

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

Do any members wish to raise any matters around that? No.

We will move on to correspondence. As previously agreed, items not flagged for discussion at this meeting will continue to be dealt with in accordance with the proposed actions that have been circulated and decisions taken by the committee in relation to correspondence are recorded in the minutes of the committee meetings and are published on the committee webpage.

The first category of correspondence in which members have flagged items for discussion is item B, correspondence from Accounting Officers and-or Ministers and the follow up to the Committee of Public Accounts meetings. A number of items for today's meeting were held over for further consideration. Deputy Carthy is absent and his is the first one. The next one is Deputy Catherine Murphy's and Deputy Carthy's and the following one is Deputy Catherine Murphy's. If the Deputies want to flag something for discussion at a meeting, the clerk can notify them and they can do it at a subsequent meeting. Is that agreed? Agreed.

We will move on to correspondence No. 1279B from the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Michael McGrath, dated 31 May, in relation to our report on the examination of the 2019 and 2020 appropriation accounts for Vote 29 – Environment, Climate and Communications, and expenditure on the national broadband plan. It is welcome that all five of the committee's recommendations were accepted. The recommendations relate to the failure of the State to meet the greenhouse gas emissions and renewable energy targets; the sustainable energy programmes expenditure; the total cost of landfill remediation; and in relation to broadband, the failure of Broadband Ireland to meet its target for the roll-out of the national broadband plan and the need for the Department to develop in-house expertise to reduce the reliance on external consultants and expertise for advice relating to the national broadband plan. At the meeting last week, we agreed to note and publish this item of correspondence. I flagged it for discussion. On the failure to meet greenhouse gas emissions and renewable energy targets, with the agreement of the committee, I ask that we write to the Department to ask what the situation is regarding the shortfall in our energy needs. What measures are being taken? We understand, and we read these things in the media, that generators are going to be imported. Are generators going to be imported? How many are going to be brought in? What are they fuelled by? Is it diesel or gas? We do not know. What will the estimated cost of this be to get us through the winter? We know the grid went on orange alert last winter on eight occasions. We also know we had a very mild winter. There is a real concern out there regarding what could happen here and our energy needs during the coming winter. Are we going to wind up running expensive generators? I ask that we correspond with the Department and ask those questions. What is the shortfall? What is the risk? How many generators will there be? What will they cost and what will they be fuelled by? This in the context of greenhouse gas emissions. We have closed down a lot of turf burning stations.

The other issue I want to raise relates to the failure of Broadband Ireland to meet its target for the roll out. It was supposed to be 115,000 premises by 31 January of this year.

There was then a revised target of 60,000 to be passed but the actual number passed was 34,454. I note that only 7,000 premises had been passed at that stage. There is now a new remedial plan. We are going way off the target in what we are doing regarding broadband. We recommended quarterly reports, but I suggest we ask for a report from National Broadband Ireland, NBI, on the number of premises passed by the end of June 2022 and on the number of homes actually connected because there is an issue around the percentage take-up, which is quite low, as well as on the projections and targets for the remaining part of the year, if that is agreeable. Does any member wish to come in on that? If that is agreed, we will move on.

No. 1281B is correspondence from Ms Vivienne Flood, head of public affairs at RTÉ, dated 31 May, providing information requested by the committee regarding revenue generated by advertising on the RTÉ Player. We agreed to note and publish this correspondence at our meeting last week. It is related to the following item, so I will set that out as well before opening the floor.

No. 1290B is correspondence from Mr. John McKeon, Secretary General, Department of Social Protection, providing further information requested by the committee regarding the investigation of contractors engaged by RTÉ. We agreed to note and publish this correspondence at our meeting last week. We also agreed to request details of any litigation fees incurred in respect of the reference in the correspondence to appeal notifications for approximately 29% of all cases, and an information note regarding the number of former contractors who are no longer on contract or employed by RTÉ, including whether they are within the scope of the investigation. Deputy Catherine Murphy contributed on these items last week, as did Deputy Munster who also flagged them.

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