Items Nos. 1 and 2 are the minutes of the meeting of 21 June 2012 and any matters arising them. Are they agreed? Agreed. Item No. 3 is correspondence received since our meeting of 21 June 2012. Item No. 3A are replies from the Accounting Officers. Item No. 3A.1 is correspondence dated 12 June 2012 from Ms Geraldine Tallon, Secretary General of the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government. That was deferred from our meetings on 14 June and 21 June 2012. Item No. 3A.2 is correspondence dated 8 June 2012 from Mr. David Cooney, Secretary General of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. That was deferred from our meeting on 21 June 2012. Item No. 3A.3 is correspondence dated 19 June 2012 from Mr. Seán Ó Foghlú, Secretary General of the Department of Education and Skills, regarding oversight of VEC expenditure, to be noted and published. No. 3A.4 is correspondence dated 25 June 2012 from Mr. Matthew Elderfield, Deputy Governor - financial regulation - of the Central Bank of Ireland regarding the capitalisation of Irish banks, to be noted.
Business of Committee
I am mentioned in that letter, so I should probably make a comment. It was widely reported in the media that Mr. Elderfield spoke about the banks' requirements, which he has clarified. The letter is very much in defensive mode but, effectively, I was only putting forward what was in the public domain.
I thank Deputy O'Donnell for raising the issue. We received a letter from Mr. Elderfield substantially confirming what we said was reported. There is an issue of €5 billion versus €4 billion but the essence of what he said is that the two pillar banks, under the new agreement for banks, will require billions of euro in extra funding. He said the source of that funding should be through increased profits. I hope he is right in that regard. The point we understood him to make, which he confirmed, was that the banks needed extra capital. That is the bottom line here.
Item No. 3A.5 is correspondence dated 25 June 2012 from Ms Loretta Lambkin, chief executive, Dublin Docklands Development Authority, regarding our meeting of Thursday, 12 July 2012. Item No. 3B is correspondence alleging waste of public funds. Item 3B.1 is correspondence dated 18 June 2012 from Mr. Daniel O'Mahony, regarding the provision of education for children with autism, to be noted. A copy of the correspondence will be forwarded to the Department of Education and Skills for a note on the issues raised. Item 3B.2 is correspondence dated 19 June 2012 from Mr. Noel O'Connell, director of audit, Local Government Audit Service, forwarding a copy of correspondence sent to Mr. Tomás Ó Maonaile regarding alleged misuse of public moneys in Meath County Council. This correspondence is to be noted. The director of audit has responded directly to the original complaint.
Regarding individual complaints, correspondence dated 10 June 2012 from Mr. Michael O'Carroll on Fenit harbour, County Kerry, is to be noted and the correspondence forwarded to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the local government auditor. Item 3C is correspondence dated 13 June 2012 from the Secretary General of the Department of Health regarding the nursing home refund scheme, which is to be noted and a copy of the correspondence forwarded to Mr. Michael McMahon, the original complainant. Item 3C.3, correspondence dated 18 June 2012, from the Secretary General, Department of Education and Skills re Ms Ann Hurley, Baltimore, County Cork, is to be noted. Regarding resolution of the complaint made by this individual, although not a matter for the committee, it may be relevant to the Comptroller and Auditor General's audit of the County Cork VEC. Item 3C.4, correspondence dated 19 June 2012 from Deputy Mary Lou McDonald re value for money and procurement of water infrastructure, is to be noted and the Comptroller and Auditor General can respond directly to the Deputy. Item 3C.5, correspondence dated 19 June 2012 to Tom Moran, Secretary General, Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, regarding Charles Farrell is to be noted and a copy of this correspondence is to be forwarded to Mr. Michael Brosna. Item 3C.6, correspondence dated 21 June 2012 from William Treacy, Portlaoise, County Laois, with reference to the Turf Club and Horse Racing Ireland, is to be noted. Correspondence dated 20 June 2012, from Mr. Denis Healy-----
Is that correspondence to be published?
No, it is to be noted.
We have been noting and publishing everything else.
To be quite frank, the proper procedure with regard to the letter from Mr. Treacy is that it be noted. The meeting should note we have followed proper procedure diligently, in the interest of Mr. Treacy and the complaints he has made to date. The Clerk to the committee and his staff have given the matter a lot of time and continue to do so. Any replies we receive go directly to Mr. Treacy, who has been dealing directly with all and sundry in this House.
Item 3D, documents relating to the committee meeting of 21 June 2012-----
I thought the next item was from the Turf Club, 3C.7.
That particular correspondence, dated 20 June 2012 to Mr. Denis Egan, chief executive, Turf Club, re Mr. Treacy, is to be noted and a copy of the correspondence forwarded to Mr. Treacy.
Will we publish the Turf Club's correspondence? I note that the Turf Club complained about the wrong horse in the last letter and they have now corrected it. I note this recent letter states, "the first notification we received from Mr. Treacy about a problem was on 16 September 2012". They are even getting the year wrong now. This is a reply from a State agency to a simple letter we wrote and it contains the wrong name in the matter under inquiry. This has now been corrected by the Turf Club but now it is coming back and saying the first they knew of the complaint was next September. They do not even get the year right with regard to the complaint. The Turf Club is exacerbating the complaint by not even having the decency to take care in the letters it writes. We asked the Turf Club for the file on the complaint and there is no reference to that request in this letter. They have utterly ignored that request.
Bad grammar and dates are not the only mistakes made by State agencies, as we all know only too well.
I am talking about dealing with us.
I take your point.
What happens then? Is that the end of the Turf Club's correspondence?
I would imagine so. There are other replies still to come back.
Further information to follow.
Item 3D is documents relating to committee meeting of 21 June 2012. Item 3D.1 is correspondence dated 22 June 2012 from Mr. Ray Mitchell, national assistant director, parliamentary regulatory affairs, Health Service Executive, on a briefing paper on matters to be considered at a meeting on 28 June 2012. 3D.2 is correspondence re 27 June 2012 to Mr. Cathal Magee, chief executive, HSE, re the opening statement, to be noted and published.
Item No. 4 relates to reports and statements and accounts received since the meeting of 21 June. Items 4.1, Pensions Board, and 4.2, Enterprise Ireland, are both to be noted. There are no changes to the committee work programme. Item 6 is any other business. Are there any matters? There are no other matters. We can agree our agenda for Thursday, 5 July 2012 which will be the 2010 annual report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts, the Comptroller and Auditor's special report on NAMA. Given that the committee will receive legal advice I suggest we delay the public session until 10.45 a.m. Is that agreed? Agreed.