Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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It is worth noting that while the commercial semi-States fall outside our remit, it is useful to have that list of dividends paid to the State. The public purse, the taxpayer and the public service benefit from this. For example, the ESB has paid more than €258 million in one year and Bord na Móna, despite having gone through a very difficult time, is paying €10 million. While this has reduced in recent years, hopefully, that will go back up again. It shows we have a number of very successful semi-State companies that have served the State, the taxpayer and the industrial development of the country very well. It is proposed to publish that correspondence on the committee website. Is that agreed? Agreed.

Next is No. 215B from Ms Rachel Downes, CEO of Caranua, dated 24 November 2020, providing further information requested by the committee regarding the arrangements for winding down Caranua. We considered this at our meeting on 25 November and agreed to postpone our engagement with Caranua to 17 December. We have also written to the Taoiseach, the Minister for Education and the Secretary General of the Department of Education to raise our concerns around the wind-down. A number of us are concerned about the wind-down and the fact there are still outstanding applications for compensation under that fund.