Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 22 January 2015

Public Accounts Committee

Business of Committee

10:00 am

Photo of John McGuinnessJohn McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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Are the minutes of the meeting of 18 December 2014 agreed? Agreed. Are there any matters arising from the minutes? No.

We will now deal with correspondence. No. 3A.1 is correspondence dated 18 December 2014 from Mr. Tom O'Mahony, Secretary General, Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, which is a follow-up to the committee meeting on 2 October 2014 with The Irish Sports Council, to be noted and published.

No. 3A.2 is correspondence dated 23 December 2013 from Ms Elaine Byrne, deputy registrar of credit unions at the Central Bank of Ireland. It is a follow-up to our meeting on 11 December, to be noted and published. No. 3A.3 is correspondence dated 27 November 2014 from Mr. John Pollock, National Paediatric Hospital Development Board, following up our meeting on 23 October 2014, to be noted and published. No. 3A.4 is correspondence dated 22 December 2014, which we referred to in our previous discussion, from the Revenue Commissioners on our meeting on 4 December 2014, to be noted and published. We might write to Mr. Ryan and ask the clerk to send either this letter or the appropriate parts of the letter where Ms Feehily responded and said she would be in touch.

I turn to individual correspondence. No. 3B.1 is correspondence dated 17 December 2014 from Mr. Brendan Ryan, CEO of the Courts Service - responses regarding expenses claims, to be noted and published. No. 3B.2 is correspondence dated 17 December 2014 from Mr. Seán Ó Foghlú, Secretary General of the Department of Education and Skills, re Gaelscoil an Ghoirt Alainn, to be noted and published. No. 3B.3 is correspondence dated 17 December 2014 from Mr. Seán Ó Foghlú, Secretary General, Department of Education and Skills, re education provision in Rathkeale, County Limerick, to be noted and published. No. 3B.4 is correspondence dated 18 December 2014 from the Department of Justice and Equality re wards of court, to be noted. A draft report is being prepared for the wards of court. No. 3B.5 is correspondence dated 17 December 2014 from Mr. Seán Ó Foghlú, Secretary General, Department of Education and Skills, re fee-charging schools, to be noted and a copy forwarded to Dr. Bríd McGrath. No. 3B.6 is correspondence dated 22 December 2014 from Mr. Jim Breslin, Secretary General, Department of Health, re NMBI annual accounts, to be noted and a copy forwarded to the individuals who raised the issue. No. 3B.7 is correspondence dated 22 December 2014 from Mr. Derek Moran, Secretary General, Department of Finance, re issues regarding resources in the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General, to be noted and published. No. 3B.8 is correspondence dated 22 December 2014 from Mr. John Murphy, Secretary General, Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, re issues with payment of contractors at UCC, to be noted and published. This is a matter that was raised by Deputy John Deasy and we will come back to it when he returns. No. 3B.9 is correspondence dated 5 January 2015 from Ms. Audrey Naughton re local property tax and private management charges, to be noted and forwarded to the Department of Finance for a note on the issue. No. 3B.10 is correspondence dated 5 January 2015 from Mr. Tom Moran, Secretary General, Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, re cost to the State of case with Mr. John Fleury, to be noted. The Department has not addressed the issue of costs and I propose that the Accounting Officer be asked to get that information for the committee. That information is compiled by the Chief State Solicitor. Can we write directly to the Chief State Solicitor?