John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Are the minutes of the meeting of 19 September 2013 agreed? Agreed. Are there any matters arising from the minutes? No. Correspondence 3A.1, dated 24 September 2013, is from Ms Niamh O'Donoghue, Secretary General of the Department of Social Protection, providing additional information requested at our meeting of 18 July, to be noted and published.

Correspondence 3B.1, dated 10 September 2013, is from Mr. Michael Barrett, Lakeside Marina, County Westmeath, to be noted and a copy forwarded to the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government for a note on the issues raised.

Correspondence 3B.2, dated 11 September 2013, is from Mr. Stephen Mulholland, Ballivor, County Meath, regarding Permanent TSB charges, to be noted. This is not a matter for the Committee of Public Accounts. There are appropriate avenues to appeal bank charges and we will inform Mr. Mulholland of this.

Correspondence 3B.3, dated 12 September 2013, is from Mr. Daniel O'Mahony regarding evidence previously given to the committee by the Department of Education and Skills regarding the home tuition scheme, to be noted. The committee has dealt with the issue and Mr. O'Mahony has been advised of the position.

Documents relating to today’s committee meeting are 3C.1, correspondence received 23 September 2013 from the National Asset Management Agency regarding a briefing paper on matters to be considered at today's meeting, to be noted and published, and 3C.2, correspondence received 25 September 2013, also from NAMA, regarding the opening statement at today's meeting, to be noted and published.

I will not read through the list of reports, statements and accounts received since the meeting of 19 September. If members have any issues arising, I ask them to let the clerk know. They are all to be noted with the exception of 4.10, NAMA's annual report and financial statement for 2012, which will be examined at today’s meeting.

The work programme is now on screen. A meeting has been scheduled with Forfás and Ordnance Survey Ireland on 17 October 2013. We will examine Forfás’s accounts at 10 a.m. followed by Ordnance Survey Ireland’s accounts at noon. We may have a private meeting on Thursday, 24 October to consider our report on bank stabilisation. A meeting has been scheduled with Bord na gCon on 7 November 2013. Do members have comments on the work programme? The Comptroller and Auditor General's report will be published next week and from this we will outline our work programme beyond the dates I have mentioned.

Two matters arise under any other business. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has been in contact with the committee about sending a delegation to examine the oversight of expenditure in a programme country. At this early stage we are looking at travelling to Ethiopia, possibly on Thursday, 14 November. The clerk will be in contact with members on this.

The second issue relates to the banking Inquiry. As members may know, the commencement order for the Act which provides for an Oireachtas inquiry was signed by the Minister yesterday. Last year the committee did a lot of work on scoping out the issues which should be addressed in any such inquiry, and these are laid down in our report which was published in July 2012. In this report the committee indicated clearly it is best placed to conduct such an inquiry and this remains the position. Work on the procedural framework which needs to be put in place before permission to undertake an inquiry can be given is under way, but it will be later this year before it is complete. We will probably write to the Committee on Procedure and Privileges, CPP, referring to our recommendations in the report.