Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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There is a paragraph in the middle of the front page of this letter that says "As Secretary General and Accounting Officer for the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications I am responsible for, inter alia, ensuring that there is a clear framework for control (including financial reporting) and accountability for public funds"" The next page, however, has quite an extensive list of items:

critical to the functions of Inland Fisheries Ireland remained to be performed and could not be performed [including]

i. Sign off on Statements of Internal Control for 2021 and 2022;

ii. Approval of use of Inland Fisheries Ireland HQ, Citywest Business Campus,Dublin for current emergency to house refugees;

iii. Sales and acquisitions of property;

iv. Sign off on financial statements for 2021;

It strikes me that to date, there has been a very hands-off approach around this. Serious issues have been raised under correspondence at a number of meetings. In the same way that we received information on Meisian Plaza, we need to receive a quarterly update on this from the Department. We are waiting until the board is in place so the accounts can be signed off, so the Comptroller and Auditor General can audit the accounts but there appear to be other issues of governance that do not strike me as being very hands-on.