Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 13 November 2025
Public Accounts Committee
Business of Committee
2:00 am
John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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Do members wish to comment? No. Can we agree to note the listing of accounts and financial statements? Agreed. The listing of accounts and financial statements will be published as part of our minutes.
We will now consider B items of correspondence which have been received from Accounting Officers and Government bodies. The first item is No. R0329. It is from the PSM governance and policy unit at the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport, dated 31 October 2025, informing the committee of the late laying of the 2024 accounts for RTÉ. Is it agreed to note and publish this item? Agreed.
No. R0333 is correspondence from the chief executive officer at Beaumont Hospital, dated 13 November 2025, providing a response to information requested at the public accounts committee meeting on 9 October 2025. Is it agreed to note and publish this item? Agreed.
No. R0334 is correspondence from the chief executive officer at the National Treatment Purchase Fund board, dated 5 November 2025, providing a response to information requested at the public accounts committee meeting of 9 October 2025. Is it agreed to note and publish that item? Agreed.
No. R0335 is correspondence from the part-time broadcast workers here within the Houses of the Oireachtas. We had a discussion in our private session in relation to this. We have agreed to write to the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission to get an update, given the information we have been supplied that no companies have tendered to continue the broadcasting of Oireachtas proceedings from 1 January. That is an issue of concern, given previous engagement we have had with the commission to the effect that it was its priority to ensure continuity of coverage and the fact that no tenders have been submitted.
I propose we write to the commission to seek an update as to what contingency arrangements are in place given that situation. We will also ask the Department of public expenditure to carry out a review of previous figures we had obtained with a view to making the part-time broadcast workers full-time civil servants to provide that broadcast coverage for the Oireachtas. Is it agreed to take action on those two issues. Agreed.
Moving on to the work programme, next week, on Thursday, 20 November, the committee will examine funding of the Peter McVerry Trust and the Comptroller and Auditor General chapter on exceptional funding of the Peter McVerry Trust. The committee will have three sessions. In session 1 at 9.30 a.m. the committee will engage with Mr. Francis Doherty, the former CEO; at session 2 at 11 a.m. the committee will meet the Charities Regulator and the Approved Housing Bodies Regulatory Authority; and in session 3 at 2 p.m., the committee will meet the Peter McVerry Trust.
The next item is any other business. Are there any other items which members wish to discuss?