Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 13 March 2014

Public Accounts Committee

Business of Committee

10:15 am

Photo of John McGuinnessJohn McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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We will ask for this. Before we move on to the next item I wish to add my voice and agree with Deputy Ross from the beginning, that the information we asked for was relative to our investigation into the spending of public moneys. I am taken aback by the fact Rehab would not deliver this information in as full and comprehensive a form as possible and allow us get on with our work. It is doing untold damage itself to the sector it represents by not doing this. I encourage it, Mr. Flannery and anybody else who comes before us to come with full information, give a complete statement and answer the questions directly. We did not have a good exchange of information on the last occasion and there was a certain reluctance to answer questions. Some questions were simply not answered.

If we are to complete our analysis of this we need to send a clear message to Rehab and others who come before us that it is far better to co-operate with the committee, deal with the issues which are raised and allow us continue our work. The decisions made this morning in private session, and dealt with again in public session, are decisions made with the agreement of all members of the committee. There was no dissenting voice to the invitations to be issued or to how this was to be approached. It is with the full support of the Committee of Public Accounts we undertake this work. Ministers and Members of both Houses should take note of this before making public comments.

With regard to Mr. Flannery, it is not personal.

We have a job to do and ask him for his full co-operation.

We will now deal with correspondence from individuals. No. 3B.1 is correspondence received from Mr. William Treacy in regard to issues to do with Horse Racing Ireland and the Turf Club. The correspondence is to be noted.

No. 3B.2 is correspondence, dated 2 March 2014, from Mr. Ham Goulding, The correspondence is to be noted and published. Mr. Goulding requests that a copy of the forthcoming report by the HSE interim administrator be forwarded to the former CRC board members prior to its release. That is a matter in the first instance for the director general of the HSE who will receive the report. We will ensure all witnesses will receive adequate notice of our meeting. In that regard, all witnesses will have a full opportunity to read the report in advance of our meeting. We also asked at a previous meeting that Mr. Goulding receive a transcript of the last meeting. It has been sent to him.