John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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Is it agreed to note these accounts? Agreed.

We have received further correspondence from HL Commodity Foods regarding previous comments and hearings of the Committee of Public Accounts and I will circulate it to members. I want to have it noted and published in due course. We should get a reply alongside it. Members will not have seen it, so perhaps we should also ask for the reply from the Department in order that we have both before us when we are considering it.

With regard to the report on Cork Institute of Technology, CIT, and our meeting with the Secretary General of the relevant Department, the cost of doing the report was noted at €65,000.

New figures indicate that the cost was €100,000. I am referring to the redacted report which we received. We need to get back to this issue and deal with all the aspects of the report that have been raised with us. I will ask the clerk to put the issue of the CIT on the agenda for next week.

The Committee of Public Accounts seems to be mentioned a great deal in the Dáil these days. Yesterday, the Minister of State at the Department of Education and Skills, Deputy Damien English, responded to a Topical Issue matter on the University of Limerick that was dealt with by this committee. The correspondence dates back to 27 April 2012 and March 2012. There are serious issues to be addressed and yesterday it was revealed that it had been brought to the Minister's attention that there are now legal proceedings in this case. We should receive an up-to-date report on the University of Limerick and the issues that were raised yesterday so that we can discuss them with the HEA when its representatives are next before the committee, which will be shortly.