Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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Is that agreed? Agreed. We can come back to this issue.

The next correspondence is No. 2306 from an individual and is dated 10 January 2024. It relates to the delivery of the Kolbe Special School in Portlaoise, County Laois. The committee considered previous correspondence from the same person at a meeting on 23 March and in private session on 20 April. The matter was forwarded to the Joint Committee on Education, Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science for its consideration. It is proposed to consent to forward the correspondence to the Department of Education for an update on the matters raised. Is that agreed? Agreed.

I will add one point. This correspondence has to do with the transfer of a small piece of land from the HSE to the school. There is a new building. It is a special needs school for children with profound psychological and physical disabilities. It has been going on for years. The school is housed in awful prefabs. It is getting some new prefabs, which is welcome. There is a site up the road and money has been approved for it. Some of the accommodation work is being carried out. ESB cables have to be moved. Part of the work cannot be carried out because it requires the transfer of this piece of land from the Health Service Executive, which in fairness has agreed to transfer the land into the ownership of the school. That is welcome. However, as anyone who has dealt with HSE estates regarding transfer of land will know, it can be a slow process. The implications of this is that there is a public cost. Each month this is held up it is costing money. I know a bit of the background and while I do not know all of the detail, I know it is costing money. That is not to mention the fact that the needs of the children and staff in chronic need of a new school are not being looked after.

I do not want to get into individual cases here. We cannot do that. However, in the context of the extra cost being placed on the Exchequer, I ask that we send a letter to Bernard Gloster, the new chief officer in the HSE, asking that where land is being transferred from the HSE for schools and urgent infrastructure, he speak with the HSE estates section to try to expedite that. There needs to be a quicker way of dealing with these cases, in particular in the case of facilities that are urgently needed. I do not know if members have ever had the experience of trying to deal with land being transferred from public bodies like that. It can be very difficult. Is that agreed? Agreed.

We move on to the work programme. The draft work programme has been circulated and is on members' screens now. On 25 January, we will continue our examination of the topic of misclassification of workers. We met with the Revenue Commissioners to examine the 2022 appropriation accounts, Vote 9, and the relevant chapters of the Comptroller and Auditor General's annual report. On 1 February, we will meet with the Department of Health with regard to the 2022 appropriation accounts, Vote 38, and chapter 19 of the C and AG's annual report. Members will recall that this meeting was postponed from 7 December. Representatives of the HSE have also been invited to attend that meeting.

At our last meeting, it was agreed to schedule a meeting with the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Sport Ireland and the FAI for 8 February; to meet with An Garda Síochána and the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission, GSOC, on 15 February - there is a bit of moving around to be done there; and to schedule a meeting with the Department of Justice for 22 February. However, representatives of the FAI are not available to meet us on either 8 or 15 February and the proposed order of meetings has been updated accordingly. GSOC representatives have confirmed their availability for 8 February to discuss the 2022 financial statements. It is proposed that we also examine the appropriation account for Vote 20 - An Garda Síochána. However, An Garda Síochána representatives have advised that they are not available to attend on 8 February but are available on 21 March. Furthermore, in correspondence No. 2285, GSOC has requested that its representatives not appear at the same meeting as the witnesses from An Garda Síochána as they are independent in their function. Are members happy to proceed with a meeting with GSOC and representatives from the Department of Justice on 8 February, with a separate meeting with An Garda Síochána and the Department on 21 March?