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

The business before the committee this afternoon is as follows: minutes, accounts financial statements, correspondence, work programme for the new year and any other business, including a proposal as to how we might address overdue responses to correspondence from the committee. We will then go briefly into private session before adjourning until next Thursday, 1 December, when we will engage with the Department of Social Protection.

The first item is minutes of the meeting of 17 November. They have been circulated and does any member wishing to raise any matter? No. Are the minutes agreed? Agreed. As usual, the minutes will be published on the committee's webpage.

The second item is five sets of accounts and financial statements of the Comptroller and Auditor General which have been placed before the Houses between 14 and 18 November. I ask Mr Seamus McCarty, the Comptroller and Auditor General, to address these now please before I open the meeting to the floor.