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

Is the listing of accounts and financial statements agreed? Agreed. As usual, the accounts and financial statements will be published as part of our minutes.

We will move on to correspondence. As previously agreed, items that were not flagged for discussion for this meeting will 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’s meetings and published on the committee’s webpage. Four items have been flagged for discussion today. Three items relate to the Kolbe Special School, Portlaoise, so I will read out all three before opening up to the floor.

The first is No. R2401B from Ms Bernie McNally, Secretary General of the Department of Education, which is dated 16 February 2024. It is proposed to note and publish that item of correspondence. Is that agreed? Agreed. No. R2418B is from Mr. Bernard Gloster, chief executive officer of the HSE, and is dated 21 February 2024. It is proposed to note and publish that item of correspondence. Is that agreed? Agreed. No. R2402C is from an individual, and is dated 14 February 2024. It is proposed to forward the responses received from the HSE and the Department of Education relating to the school and to inform the correspondent that the committee will now continue to scrutinise capital expenditure of audited accounts at the Department of Education. All three items have been flagged. We would be scrutinising the capital works across the board in any case. The correspondence related to works that needed to be carried out to progress the school. The issue was that it was being held up and the costs were increasing, and the special school could not be built. Those accommodation works have now been cleared out of the way. The HSE owned the land, hence the reason we are writing to the HSE. The Department of Education is obviously involved. I publicly thank the HSE, and Bernard Gloster in particular, for ensuring there was no further hold up, and I also acknowledge the ESB. The ESB could not progress work until the HSE resolved issues around ownership and wayleave. We will continue examination of audited accounts at the Department of Education into the future.

I move on to No. R2419B, which is from Mr. Kevin Bakhurst, director general of RTÉ, and provides legal advice to RTÉ regarding exit packages for former staff. It is proposed to note and publish this item. Is that agreed? Agreed. Deputy Murphy and I have flagged this for discussion.