Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 12 October 2017

Public Accounts Committee

Business of Committee

9:00 am

Photo of Seán FlemingSeán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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We have to be conscious. The service provider has gone to the High Court on this as well. Despite all of the issues, it has settled the issue. I want to read one paragraph from the executive summary.

Deloitte reminds the HSE of its letter of engagement, particularly in relation to confidentiality. This precludes the HSE from disclosing this report to any third party without Deloitte's prior written consent. In other words if we want to contact Deloitte we are going to have to do it through the HSE, who commissioned the report. We have no direct link to Deloitte on this. I ask the members of this committee to provide targeted information on the direction we want to take with that meeting. I will consult the parliamentary legal advisor so that we do not trespass onto a High Court agreement or onto a commission engaged with the work. We have our job to do but we need to avoid trespassing onto those two areas. I think that is fair and reasonable. I do not want the Committee of Public Accounts to get into a conflict with an independent commissioner appointed by the Oireachtas.