Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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The committee is now in public session. We are joined today by the Comptroller and Auditor General, Mr. Seamus McCarthy, as a permanent witness to the committee. He is accompanied by Mr. John Riordan, deputy director of audit.

Apologies have been received from Deputies Peter Burke and Alan Farrell. We note their apologies.

The first item on the agenda are the minutes of the meetings of 27 and 29 June. Are they agreed? Agreed.

The next item are matters arising from the minutes. There is nothing specific that is not on the agenda in front of us.

The next item is correspondence received of which there are a number of items. Category A refers to briefing documents that we have received from the Department of Finance and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. Nos. 653(i) and (ii) pertain to a cover letter from Mr. Derek Moran, Secretary General of the Department of Finance. We note and will publish that.

No. 661A is a cover letter from Mr. Robert Watt, Secretary General of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. It is an update on Votes 11, 12, 18 and 39, Chapter 3 and the special report by the Comptroller and Auditor General on financial reporting in the public sector.

We note the opening statement supplied by the Department of Finance. We will receive the opening statement from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform during the course of this morning's meeting. We have not received it yet but we are not scheduled to meet the Department until this afternoon.

The next item is correspondence that was carried over from last week's meeting. Correspondence dated 16 June came from Mr. Maurice Buckley, Chairman, OPW, deals with a request by the Department of Education and Skills to provide office accommodation for Caranua with instructions from the Department that Caranua would meet the appropriate rental costs.Members have the correspondence in front of them so people can see precisely what has been said. Whether we like it, disagree with it or are happy with it is another issue. Does anyone want to make a specific comment on the matter?