Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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We are joined by the Comptroller and Auditor General, Mr. Seamus McCarthy, who is a permanent witness to the committee. He is joined today by Ms Josephine Mooney, deputy director of audit at the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General. Apologies have been received from Deputy Deering.

I have not had an opportunity to review the minutes of the previous two meetings. I propose we hold them over to the next meeting, when we can deal with any matters arising. Is that agreed? Agreed.

There are three categories of correspondence. Category A deals with briefing material and opening statements. Nos. 2249A, 2256A, 2257A, 2258A and 2259A are from Mr. Brendan Gleeson, Secretary General at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. These are the briefing documents and opening statements for today's meeting. We will note and publish those.

No. 2255A is from Mr. Allen Morgan and provides an opening statement for this afternoon’s private meeting. We will note this item and discuss whether to publish it during the course of the meeting this afternoon.

Category B is correspondence from Accounting Officers and-or Ministers, follow-up material from previous meetings of the committee and other items for publication.

No. 2161B dated 10 May, which was held over from previous meetings on 13 May and 13 June, is from Mr. Paul O'Toole, chief executive officer of the higher Education Authority. It encloses the report regarding the review of the relationship between Cork Institute of Technology and certain named companies and entities undertaken by Mazars. We have already noted and published this item but it was held over for discussion if any member of committee would like to discuss it briefly. I know one or two members with a particular interest in this matter are not here. We have noted and published it but we will hold it over in case any wants to discuss it. For anybody who is interested in the document, it has already been noted and published. We might have a further detailed discussion about it at the next meeting.

No. 2201B dated 31 May 2019 is from Mr. Robert Watt, Secretary General of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. This is the most substantial item of correspondence we have today. It encloses a minute from the Minister of Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform on periodic report No. 5 of the Committee of Public Accounts, which covered our meetings from September to November 2018. The report was published by the committee in March 2019 and I welcome the prompt response, which we received at the end of May, as I said. I will go through the comprehensive letter. I reiterate that organisations present their accounts to the committee after they have been audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General. We discuss their accounts but that the public meeting of the committee is not the end of the matter. We proceed to examine the matter in further detail, prepare a report or chapter on each meeting we have and publish the report with recommendations. We send that to the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform who prepares a formal response to our recommendations in consultation with the relevant Departments, which is then submitted to the committee. We now have the response from the Minister. We take these responses seriously and committee members will make a number of observations. I will go through each of the report's recommendation.