John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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You are all very welcome to today's meeting of the Committee of Public Accounts. Before we proceed, I have a few housekeeping matters to go through. Members are reminded of the provisions within Standing Order 226 that the committee shall refrain from inquiring into the merits of a policy or policies of the Government or a Minister of the Government or the merits of the objectives of such policies. Members are also reminded of the long-standing parliamentary practice that they should not comment on, criticise or make charges against a person outside the Houses or an official, either by name or in such a way as to make him or her identifiable. I remind members of the constitutional requirement that in order to participate in public meetings, they must be physically present within the confines of the Leinster House complex. Members of the committee attending remotely must do so from within the precincts of Leinster House.

The agenda for today is to discuss accounts and statements, correspondence and upcoming meetings. We will then suspend and begin the engagement with officials from the Department of Justice, Migration and Home Affairs.

Two sets of accounts and financial statements were laid between 13 and 17 October 2025 and are due to be considered today.

We are joined by the Comptroller and Auditor General, Mr. Seamus McCarthy, who is a permanent witness to the committee. I will ask him to address these before opening the floor to members.

Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

First, we have the National Economic and Social Development Office for 2024. It received a clear audit opinion. Second, we have the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council financial statement for 2024. It also received a clear audit opinion.

John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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Can we agree to note the listing of accounts and financial statements? Agreed. They will be published as part of our minutes.

We will now consider category B, items of correspondence that have been received from accounting officers and Government bodies. These items were received between 6 October and 14 October 2025. The committee has agreed to note and publish the following:

No. R0289, correspondence from the Office of Public Works, dated 26 September 2025, providing an update on matters raised by the committee on a number of topics;

No. R0308, correspondence from the Secretary General of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine providing an update on the late laying of the financial statements of the Fishery Harbour Centre;

No. R0315, correspondence from the Secretary General of the Department of Transport providing an update to the committee’s queries regarding the cost of the Coast Guard search and rescue contract.

No. R0316, correspondence from the Secretary General of the Department of Education and Youth in relation to non-compliant procurement;

No. R0317, correspondence from Sport Ireland in relation to the refurbishment of tennis courts in Kilmore Quay - the committee has agreed to write to the Department of Culture, Communication and Sport on the matter; and

No. R0318, correspondence from An Garda Síochána providing an amendment to the dates referenced in previous correspondence issued to the committee.

Is it agreed to note and publish that item? Agreed.

The committee has scheduled the following meetings for the remainder of 2025. On 6 November, we will meet Uisce Éireann. On 13 November, we will meet the Department of Transport. On 20 November, we will meet the Peter McVerry Trust. On 27 November, we will meet the OPW. On 4 December, we will meet Inland Fisheries Ireland. On 11 December, we will meet the Office of the Revenue Commissioners. On 18 December, we will meet the Department of Social Protection.

Are there items the committee wishes to discuss under any other business?

Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North-West, Fianna Fail)
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On the work programme, in regard to the Department of Transport, it is important we notify it that we will raise service delivery issues as well. In my area, phase 7 of BusConnects has just been rolled out in the past week or so. There is huge dissatisfaction about the reduction in bus services and changes to services. It is important the officials are aware of that in advance of coming in.

James Geoghegan (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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I mentioned in private session that when Tusla was before the committee as recently as 20 days ago, we discussed its care of unaccompanied minors and missing unaccompanied minors. I asked if there had been any bad outcomes in respect of missing unaccompanied minors. As that stage, just 20 days ago, there had not been. There have clearly been two very serious bad outcomes - you could not even call it that - since then. This committee should probe how well equipped Tusla is to deal with what it itself before this committee described as a challenging service in terms of the numbers and moneys allocated. We will hear from the Department of justice today but the committee should come back to inquiring into Tusla in light of what has transpired in recent weeks.

Cathy Bennett (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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I wanted to talk about school transport but I do not think it is under the Department of Transport; I think it is under the Department of education. Will the Department be before the committee at some stage? School transport is horrendous is every year. I would like that to be worked on for next year. Can we invite the Department of education in on school transport? It is an ongoing saga. It is the same story every year. Children cannot get school buses, there are not enough school buses, school buses are not going in the right direction and children not allowed to go to certain schools because they are not so many kilometres from them. We need to have that discussion.

John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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I agree with both of those issues. On Tusla, while I will not address the serious issues, at our previous engagement only a couple of weeks ago there was a lot of concern about the use of unregulated accommodation for unaccompanied minors. I think there was expenditure of €56 million.

Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

It was €66 million, up from €33 million the previous year.

John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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I thank Mr. McCarthy for the clarification. There are a lot of concerns. I note some voices over the past number of days have been calling for an end to the use of unregulated accommodation. Given the seriousness of the issue and everything that has happened over the period between our engagement with Tusla and now, it is an issue we should come back to and have a look at the whole area in terms of the huge expenditure on unregulated accommodation and concerns around Tusla. We will come back to that.

On the Department of education and school transport, it is an annual issue. Every year, there is the scramble for tickets, the shortage of bus drivers and the costs involved. We can include that in our work programme next year once we get to the end of our agreed programme.