Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 9 May 2024

Public Accounts Committee

Business of Committee

9:00 am

Photo of Brian StanleyBrian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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The public business before us this afternoon is minutes, correspondence, work programme and any other business. The minutes of the meeting of 2 May 2024 have been circulated to the committee. Do any members wish to raise any issues? Are the minutes agreed? Agreed. As usual, they will be published on the committee's webpage.

We do not have any accounts or financial statements this week, so we will move on to correspondence. As previously agreed, items that are not flagged for discussion at this meeting will be dealt with in accordance with the proposed actions that have been circulated and decisions taken by the committee in relation to correspondence are recorded in the committee's meetings and published on the committee's webpage.

Four items have been flagged for discussion under category B, that is, correspondence from Accounting Officers and Ministers and follow up to PAC meetings. No. R2563 B is from Mr. David Gunning, chief executive of the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board. It is dated 26 April 2024 and it follows up and provides information in relation to the implementation of previous recommendations made by the committee. It is proposed to note and publish this item of correspondence. Is that agreed? Agreed.

I will make a brief comment on the update they gave us. I note they got the chair of the health committee wrong. Deputy Sean Crowe is the Chair. They got the two of us mixed up. Anyway that is not a big deal but the cost rise of over €75 million is a big deal. The correspondence will be useful as a reference point when they are before the committee in the very near future, before the summer recess. Page 3 contains a table which sets out some figures. The cost just seems to keep escalating. Does any other member wish to comment on it?