Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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I ask that you circulate it to members as soon as is practicable in the coming days. I was confused about that role within a company. We have covered the point for the moment and I do not want to go into the nitty-gritty of it now.

At our last meeting we cleared, noted and agreed the minutes of the meetings of 17 January, 22 January and 24 January. The meeting of 17 January was with the Department of Justice and Equality and the Prison Service. We asked the Department to respond to us, in writing, with specific information on two items and we asked the Prison Service to respond on 16 items. Three weeks later, the Committee of Public Accounts has not had any replies to any of the questions. It is not acceptable to the Committee of Public Accounts to write out to these two bodies and not receive answers. Unless we have the response by next Thursday, the same group of people will be back here again. When we write to an organisation for information, they cannot disappear into the wind and not get back to us. There has been three weeks with no communication from them. If we do not have the answers by next Tuesday evening, they will be here on Thursday to tell us why. They are now formally on notice to be here next Thursday morning at the commencement of business at 9 a.m. if we have not received replies by Tuesday evening. Can we agree to that? I propose that this is a procedure we will follow.

If we ask for information, we should receive replies or else an explanation of why it is not possible. We had to do it once last year and I do not intend to start this year on the same road.

As we have noted and agreed the minutes, we will move to the next matter on the agenda, namely, correspondence received since the last meeting. Thank God the correspondence is light because we have been busy over the past few weeks.

In category A, the first items are Nos. 1913 and 1920 from the Office of the Attorney General, providing briefing material and an opening statement. They are to be noted and published.

Nos. 1914 and 1921 are from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution, proving a briefing note and opening statement. They are to be noted and published.

Nos. 1915 and 1922 are from the Chief State Solicitor's office, providing a briefing note and opening statement. They are to be noted and published.

Nos. 1919 and 1928 are from the Department of the Taoiseach, providing a briefing note and opening statement. They are to be noted and published.

No. 1910, from Mr. Ray Mitchell, assistant national director of the HSE, was received and circulated before the last meeting but we did not note and publish it. It provides a copy of the terms of reference of the review of the escalation of costs in respect of the new children's hospital. We will seek to obtain a copy of the revised terms by the conclusion of the meeting. If they have been completed, we would like a copy. Otherwise, we should be informed. I understand that the revised terms of reference have been published and, therefore, I would like to see them.