John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)

I thank the C and AG. Do members wish to raise any questions or queries on those? No. The first item referred to by the C and AG was the State Laboratory. A draft report was considered by the committee on Vote 14, the State Laboratory, which reports on the excess expenditure reported in the C and AG's report. The sanction of Dáil Éireann is required with respect to the excess sum. The Accounting Officer has implemented procedures to prevent a similar situation arising in the future and in light of these assurances, the committee has no objection to the sum being provided by excess Vote. Do members agree to the report? Agreed. Is it agreed to note the listing of accounts and financial statements? Agreed. The listing of accounts and financial statements will be published as part of our minutes.

No. 6 is items of correspondence and we will now consider items of correspondence that have been received from Accounting Officers in Government bodies. These items were received between 26 September and 6 October. The committee has also agreed to note and publish the following items. No. R0289 is correspondence received from Mr. John Conlon, chairperson of the Office of Public Works, dated 26 September 2025. No. R0298 is correspondence received from Mr. Kevin O'Brien, Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, dated 1 October 2025. No. R0302 is correspondence received from Mr. Tony O'Brien, chairperson of the Peter McVerry Trust, dated 1 October 2025.

No. 7 is the work programme. The committee has agreed its work programme to 6 November 2025, and has published its work programme for 2025. On Thursday, 16 October, the committee will examine the 2024 financial statements of the Health Service Executive. The committee has also agreed to schedule meetings with the following bodies from November to December. At our private session, we agreed to invite in the Office of Public Works. We provisionally put 20 November aside for a hearing with the Peter McVerry Trust, which has to be confirmed, and that will be dependent on it moving forward and publishing its accounts. The secretariat will contact these bodies to confirm the dates, and we will return to the remaining dates over the next couple of meetings, bringing us up to 18 December.

No. 8 is any other business. Are there any other items the committee wishes to discuss at this point? No. Fair enough.