Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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He actually says that the NDFA has had no involvement in the project since 2016, when the agency's formal engagement as adviser to the HSE ended. We will write back to the NDFA and ask it to outline the circumstances in which that engagement ended and to explain why it ended. We will also raise the matter directly with the HSE. We will ask the executive's representatives who will be with us later today why the HSE ended its engagement with the NDFA. We will note and publish the correspondence from Mr. Callihane.

The next items are in category C, comprising correspondence from and related to private individuals and other correspondence. We will discuss these items but will not publish them. The first is item No. 1860C, a letter of complaint from an individual dated 17 January 2019 concerning the committee's consideration of Vote 1, the President's Establishment. The individual expresses the view that the timing was deliberate. We have said already that we will be dealing with Vote 1 in the normal course of events at a forthcoming meeting with the Secretary General of the Department of Finance. We will make sure that it is done on a routine basis every year from now on. Previous Committees of Public Accounts had not looked at the Vote over many years and it came as shock to some when this committee decided to do so.

The correspondent makes an interesting point, with which I would take issue, which is that this individual has a greater concern now that members of the PAC will use their position to influence European and local elections. As Chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts, I reject entirely the idea of anybody suggesting to us that we cannot discuss anything in connection with local authorities or involving the Departments of Housing, Planning and Local Government, Transport, Tourism and Sport and Rural and Community Development, all of which fund local authorities, just because there are local elections coming up, or that we cannot discuss anything related to European affairs or the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in regard to its expenditure because there are European elections coming up. That person will try to close down the Committee of Public Accounts and will probably then say that because there will be an election some time, we should discuss no Department.