Do members wish to raise any matters? No. Is it agreed to note the accounts and financial statements? Agreed. As usual, the listing of accounts and financial statements will be published as part of our minutes.
The next business is correspondence. As previously agreed, items that were 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 minutes of the committee’s meetings and published on the committee’s web page.
We have received one item of correspondence under category A. No. R2254 from the Department of Health, dated 5 December 2023, provides briefing material for the engagement with the Department which has been deferred to a future date. I propose that we defer consideration of this correspondence until the rescheduled meeting with the Department of Health. Is that agreed? Agreed.
Category B is correspondence from Accounting Officers or Ministers and follow-up to meetings of the Committee of Public Accounts. No. R2252 from Mr. David Moloney, Secretary General of the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, dated 28 November 2023, provides the minute of the Minister's response to the committee’s report, Examination of the 2019 Appropriation Account for Vote 10 – Tax Appeals Commission, and related matters. The report sets out three recommendations to the Department of Finance and the Tax Appeals Commission made by the Committee of Public Accounts to these two bodies. Members will see from the documentation that all three have been accepted, which is very welcome. Does any member wish to comment? No.
It is always good when PAC recommendations are accepted. I propose that we note and publish the item of correspondence. Is that agreed? Agreed.
That concludes our consideration of correspondence. I will move on to the work programme, which is now displayed on our screens if members have not got it in a hard copy.
At our next meeting on 14 December we will meet officials from the Housing Agency and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage to consider Chapter 11 on the utilisation of the land aggregation scheme sites, the Housing Agency’s 2022 financial statements, and programme A of Vote 34 - Housing.
On 18 January 2024, we will meet officials from the Department of Social Protection to examine the 2022 appropriation account for Vote 37, the Social Insurance Fund 2022, the relevant chapters from the Comptroller and Auditor General's annual report and the misclassification of workers. We will also meet to examine the topic of the misclassification of workers on 25 January when we again meet officials from the Office of the Revenue Commissioners to examine the 2022 appropriation account for Vote 9, the account of the receipt of revenue of the State collected by the Revenue Commissioners 2022 and the relevant chapters from the Comptroller and Auditor General's annual report. We have tried to schedule our meetings with the Department of Social Protection and the Revenue Commissioners with one following on from the other because of the subject involved.
We have agreed to reschedule our meeting with the officials from the Department of Health and officials from the HSE in terms of the 2022 appropriation account for Vote 38 - Health and Chapter 18 of the Report of the Public Services 2022. It is hoped that the rescheduled meeting will take place on 1 February, and, if not, on 8 February.
We will meet officials from the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Sport Ireland and the Football Association of Ireland. We will endeavour to meet them on 8 February if our meeting with the Department of Health happens on 1 February. I remind members to flag any areas of interest for any of our forthcoming meetings.
Last week, it was agreed to schedule a meeting with An Garda Síochána and GSOC together. It was also agreed to add the following to the work programme: the Department of Justice; the Department of Defence; the Department of Transport; the National Transport Authority; the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine; the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Authority and the Horse Racing Ireland at the same one; Inland Fisheries Ireland regarding its 2022 financial statements, which have not been laid but I hope they will be by the time we get around to that; the Office of Public Works; the Department of Foreign Affairs and international co-operation; the Department of Education; and the Residential Tenancies Board. Do members have a view on which meeting to prioritise in February? Perhaps, arising from our meeting last week, we should schedule our meeting with representatives of An Garda Síochána and GSOC for 15 February and get them in at an early point. I suggest that we meet the officials from the Department of Justice the following week on 22 February. Are members happy to do it that way?
