Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 13 April 2017

Public Accounts Committee

Business of Committee

9:00 am

Photo of Seán FlemingSeán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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I think the secretariat know precisely what we are looking for which we will communicate. If somebody has another specific issue that needs to be clarified about the evidence, I ask him or her to contact the secretariat, as a letter will go out early next week on the issue.

We have dealt with No. 431C(i) and (ii) on the Console issue. No. 424C is also about Console and the Department of Education and Skills. We will note and publish both items of correspondence. They follow through from previous public discussions we have had here.

No. 414C is correspondence from an individual on behalf of the Shannon Protection Alliance on the Shannon to Dublin water pipe proposal by Irish Water. The individual has stated he will be forwarding reports to the committee and wishes to make a presentation to it. I propose that we write to him, advising that, on receipt of the relevant reports, we will decide on how best to proceed. It might be for another committee rather than the Committee of Public Accounts.

No. 415C(i) and (ii) is correspondence, dated 7 April, from the Higher Education Authority which attaches a letter from Waterford Institute of Technology requesting the authority to appoint an external expert to validate the Institute's internal review of matters associated with FeedHenry, the campus company. We will note and publish the correspondence. We have already discussed it, as well as Deputy David Cullinane's correspondence and other press statements a few minutes ago.

We note and publish that. We note and publish item 417 as well. Correspondence item 416C is from Clare County Council, calling on the Committee of Public Accounts to examine the costs of the administration of justice attributable to the GoSafe contract which aims at reducing speeding. I propose that we write to the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport first for a detailed note. When we receive this we will decide how to proceed.

Nos. 418C.1 and 2 are correspondence from the Welsh public accounts committee attaching a programme for a public accounts network event on 12 June. We note this. It was put forward at a previous meeting and Deputy Alan Farrell has agreed to attend on behalf of the committee, accompanied by the clerk. A travel estimate is on the screen. Flights are €175, accommodation is €135, subsistence is €99 and there are miscellaneous costs of €50. The cost per member is €459 and for the two-person delegation it is €918, which is to come out of our travel budget. Is that agreed? Agreed. We will want a brief report on the event from Deputy Farrell when he comes back.

The next item of correspondence is 419C, dated 10 April, from Deputy David Cullinane regarding the statement by the Minister of State, Deputy Halligan. We have covered that. No. 420C, dated 4 April, is from the Data Protection Commissioner to the clerk of the committee informing the committee of an investigation in respect of the forwarding by the Committee of Public Accounts of personal details of an individual in respect of an issue he raised on the granting of Aosdána grants to a particular artist. The individual's letter was forwarded so that the Arts Council could understand fully the argument the individual was making. The clerk, in preparing a response to the Data Protection Commissioner, accepted fully the oversight in not redacting the person's details and has improved the system to try to ensure this does not occur again. Is it agreed we note the correspondence? Agreed. A name was not redacted in error and the matter has now been dealt with. The committee should also note that since the commencement of the 32nd Dáil, in order to protect correspondence, we no longer identify members of the public when discussing private correspondence.

No. 423C, dated 26 March, is from an individual raising concerns about the investment of Caranua funds and a possible conflict of interest in respect of board membership. Members may note that and raise it during the meeting with Caranua later today.

That concludes a lengthy discussion on correspondence and items arising from the last meeting. The next item is No. 4 on the agenda, the statement of accounts received since the last meeting. No statements have been submitted in the last week and there is no change to the work programme at the moment. We are trying to finalise some dates in respect of Mr. Tony O'Brien from the HSE.

There being no other business, we will suspend for a moment to allow the witnesses to take their seats.