Clerk to the Committee:

I received the letter yesterday evening with a direction to send it to members. My understanding is that some media comment was made yesterday suggesting that representatives of Irish Water were to appear before the Committee of Public Accounts and members would also discuss the issue of Poolbeg. I saw some media comment to that effect. The issue is not on our work programme, however. In fact, we were working on a proposal with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, arising from a letter received by the committee in September from the Secretary General, Mr. Robert Watt, in which he stated he saw considerable merit in having the start-up costs of Irish Water and the Poolbeg project come within the remit of the committee. The Poolbeg project will be a major project and it is not dissimilar to the issue the committee will shortly examine. I wrote to the Department on the matter to ascertain how this could be done. As to the legal advice, I received it yesterday evening and was told to forward it to members. I believe it arose from media comments.