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

I believe there could be more than €600 million in claims signalled. This is really big beef. We are talking about big money if it is in addition to the figures we have here. We can ask the HSE the question next week. We will ask the secretariat to note this and request information from them. We will ask what the budget is and if it will be sufficient, particularly in light of the pending claims, some of which we hope would be settled this year. Some of these might end up in the High Court. We can tease that out with them. It must at least be signalled for discussion.

On the completion date, there was a date of March 2024. We must ask the board about the nine-month period for fitting out and for activation. It would be useful to find out from the board if they are still tied to that figure.

Another question that I am not clear about is on the moratorium on claims. At what point does that stop? I do not know the answer to that and perhaps we could find this out from the board. Are members happy enough with that? We will note and publish the item of correspondence.

I shall now move on to correspondence from and related to private individuals and any other correspondence. The following items are related. We agreed to hold them over until a response was received from the Charities Regulator. This has to do with the provision or otherwise of abortion services. The correspondence is: R1574 C, from Deputy Neasa Hourigan, dated 11 November 2022; R1577 C, from former member of the committeem Deputy Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, now Minister of State, dated 15 November 2022; and R1601 C from Deputy Carthy dated 24 November 2022. Last week I proposed that we would deal with these as they have been held over for a while. The items concern the alleged operation of a body as a charity that is not registered as such. I understand the same matter was raised at a meeting of the previous Committee of Public Accounts in November 2019.

I ask that Members keep in mind the longstanding parliamentary practice that they should not comment on, criticise, or make charges against a person outside the Houses by name or in such a way as to make them identifiable.

The Charities Regulator confirms an application for registration has been received from the body in question. It is a long time coming but that is what the confirmation is. There is useful information in the correspondence regarding how the registration process works and it is also stated that this can be protracted in certain situations. I am proposing to note the item. I do not believe it is appropriate to publish this correspondence because the body is referenced. Is that agreed? Agreed.

Would any member wish to come in to discuss this? Is the committee happy enough? One of the items of correspondence was from Deputy Hourigan. Does the Deputy wish to comment?