Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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We are joined by the Comptroller and Auditor General, Mr. Seamus McCarthy, a permanent witness at the committee. He is accompanied by Ms Ruth Foley, deputy director of audit. Apologies have been received from Deputy Marc MacSharry.

The first item on the agenda is the minutes of the meeting of 2 March 2017. Are they agreed to? Agreed.

The next item is matters arising from the minutes. There are no special items that we will not deal with during the course of dealing with the agenda.

No. 3 is correspondence received since the last meeting. We will put it on the screen. In category A No. 328A is a briefing document from the HSE for today's meeting. We shall note and publish it. Is that agreed? Agreed.

No. 329A is the opening statement from Mr. Tony O'Brien, director general of the HSE. We shall note and publish it. Is that agreed? Agreed.

Category B is correspondence received from Accounting Officers or Ministers, or both, as follow-ups on previous meetings. Nos. 300B (i-iii) and 331B are correspondence, dated 17 February 2017 and 8 March 2017, from Mr. Maurice Quinn, Secretary General, Department of Defence. The correspondence comprises a follow-up to his appearance before the committee on 26 January and a subsequent information request. It was held over from last week. Does any member wish to comment? The second letter came last night. It deals specifically with the maintenance cost of the Gulfstream IV aircraft. I suggest we hold it over because we have not had time to consider it. There is some conflicting information in the public arena on the issue. We will come back to these two items of correspondence.

Nos. 313B and 330B are correspondence, dated 22 February 2017 and 7 March 2017, from Mr. Noel Waters, Secretary General, Department of Justice and Equality, following up on his appearance before the committee on 2 February. This correspondence was also held over from the last meeting. It deals with various aspects of the restorative justice schemes. There is a note on how many staff have been saved by the new building development programme which I think comes under the prison programme. There is a note on PACE, as it is called. Can we note it? There is also information on the number of assaults on prison officers in 2016. We asked for that information and it has come in separately. It is the most recent letter to which I referred. Can we note these items of correspondence and move on? If members wish to read and use them according to their own perspectives, they may do so.