Committee on Budgetary Oversight debate -
Wednesday, 8 Mar 2017

Business of Committee

Acting Chairman (Deputy Lisa Chambers)

As we have a quorum, we will commence the meeting. We are now in public session. Apologies have been received from Deputies Dara Calleary, Pat Deering, Stephen Donnelly, Seán Barrett, Colm Brophy and John Paul Phelan.

Item No. 1 on the agenda is minutes of the meeting of 28 February 2017. Are they agreed? Agreed. Are there any matters arising from those minutes?

Item No. 2 is our work programme. The work programme was agreed at the meeting of the 8 February and I ask any member who has a suggestion for changes to the programme to contact the clerk. Is there any other business before we bring in the witnesses?

Deputy John Lahart

No.

Deputy Eamon Ryan

I was at a meeting of the Sub-Committee on Dáil Reform earlier. There is agreement with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to employ advisers to the Committee on Budgetary Oversight, which is good. The Sub-Committee on Dáil Reform recognised that it will take us several months to do that. In the interim, do we do any mechanism to bring them in?

Acting Chairman (Deputy Lisa Chambers)

The clerk has informed me we will see if we can get some interim supports for the committee while we are finding our full-time staff. We will report back to members at the next meeting on what that might look like.