Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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We will check that ourselves because it says "Dear Minister" and we do not know to which Minister it is addressed. I presume it is the First Minister. We do not know whether it was the deputy First Minister. We will enquire about that.

The next items are statements and accounts received since the previous meeting. Before we go to statements and accounts, I want to refer back to the number of correspondence items this week dealing with late accounts. Members will recall that the clerk undertook some weeks ago to write to the parent Departments of all bodies that laid accounts late, namely, more than three months after being certified by the Comptroller and Auditor General. I am referring to all the accounts we have seen since this committee has been in place. The requirements are stated in a circular from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and aim to ensure that in the normal course the accounts of bodies and funds under the aegis of Departments and offices are laid before both Houses of the Oireachtas within three months of the Comptroller and Auditor General issuing the audit certificate on the accounts. These requirements are also stated in the Comptroller and Auditor General's letter on completion of his audit. We decided at a previous meeting to compile a full list. We have a list. I will ask members to have a look at it and we will come back and discuss it in further detail in case there might be individual organisations about which members may have a query. We will discuss it at our next meeting.

The list is comprehensive and will be included in correspondence for the next meeting.

The next matter is reports, statements and accounts of bodies audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General and received since our meeting of 10 November 2016. The list is short. The first matter is the Ireland-United States Commission for Educational Exchange, which received a clear audit report. The next matter is the Kerry Education and Training Board, which received a clear audit report, except that the report discloses that when the board took over responsibility for Tralee training centre in 2014 staff supporting the finance function of the centre did not transfer to the board. A significant knowledge gap relating to the accounting systems and processes in the training centre resulted in delays in extracting financial data required for the preparation of the statutory financial statement. I assume the Comptroller and Auditor General was able to complete the audit.