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

I welcome everyone to the meeting. Apologies have been received from Deputy Carroll MacNeill. While we usually hold our public engagements in the morning, officials in the Department of Foreign Affairs are unavailable this morning due to the Africa-Ireland Economic Forum 2022, which, I understand, is being held in the RDS. We will, therefore, transact the business of the committee this morning and examine the Department's appropriation accounts at 1.30 p.m. with the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Members of the committee attending remotely must continue to do so from within the precincts of Leinster House. This is due to the constitutional requirement that to participate in public meetings, members must be physically present within the confines of the place where Parliament has chosen to sit. The Comptroller and Auditor General, Mr. Seamus McCarthy, is a permanent witness to the committee.

The public business before us this morning is as follows: minutes, accounts and financial statements, correspondence, work programme and any other business, AOB. We will then briefly go into private session to deal with some housekeeping matters before suspending until 1.30 p.m.

The first item is the minutes for the meeting of 23 June which have been circulated to members. Does any member wish to raise matters in relation to those minutes? Are the minutes agreed? Agreed. As usual, they will be published on the committee's webpage.

No. 2 is accounts and financial statements. There was only one set of financial statements laid before the Houses between 21 and 24 June 2022, inclusive. I will ask the Comptroller and Auditor General, Mr. Seamus McCarthy, to address these before opening it to the floor.