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COMMITTEE OF PUBLIC ACCOUNTS díospóireacht -
Thursday, 15 Feb 2024

Business of Committee

The public business before us this afternoon is as follows: minutes, accounts and financial statements, correspondence, work programme and any other business.

The first item of business is the minutes of our meeting of 8 February 2024, which have been circulated to members. Do members wish to raise any matters in relation to the minutes? Are the minutes agreed? Agreed. As usual, the minutes will be published on the committee's web page.

Four sets of accounts and financial statements were laid before the Houses between 5 and 9 February 2024. I will ask the Comptroller and Auditor General to address them.

Mr. Seamus McCarthy

No. 1 is the financial statements of Sport Ireland for 2022. They received a clear audit opinion.

No. 2 is a special account for the purposes of the Health (Repayment Scheme) Act 2006. The account for 2022 received a clear audit opinion. No. 3 is a connected account which relates to the Health Repayment Scheme (Donations) Funds for 2022. That received a clear audit opinion.

No. 4 is the Health Service Executive Consolidated Patients' Private Property Accounts for 2022. These involve amounts of money that are held on behalf of patients who, typically, are in long-stay institutions. The accounts received a clear audit opinion.

Do members wish to raise any matters regarding the accounts and financial statements? Is the list of accounts and financial statements agreed? Agreed. As usual, they will be published as part of our minutes.

I will move on to correspondence. As previously agreed, items that are not flagged for discussion for 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 web page.

No. 2358 B, dated 1 February 2024, is correspondence from the private secretary to the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Deputy Catherine Martin. It provides an update in respect of the final Mazars' report in relation to RTÉ’s barter account. The correspondence advises that it is not possible at this point to give a guaranteed timeline for the submission of the report to the Minister. It is proposed that we note and publish this correspondence. Is that agreed? Agreed. Suffice to say that it is time for all the reports to be wrapped up at this stage. We hoped a lot of this would be done by the end of last year, and that this particular one, if it was not so, would come very early in the new year. We will note and publish the correspondence from the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.

A draft work programme discussion document, which is displayed on the screens, was circulated to members. They will see the running order is as follows. On 22 February, we will meet with the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media in relation to programme D of the 2022 appropriation accounts, and Sport Ireland in relation to its financial statements for 2022. Representatives from the FAI and the Schoolboys/girls Football Association of Ireland, SFAI, will also attend this meeting.

On 29 February, we will meet with Tusla in relation to its financial statements for 2022. Representatives of the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth have also been invited to attend.

On 7 March, we will engage with Inland Fisheries Ireland in respect of its financial statements for 2022. Officials from the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications have also been invited to attend. We have confirmation of all of those.

After the March recess, we will meet with An Garda Síochána in relation to the 2022 appropriation account for Vote 20 – An Garda Síochána. Officials from the Department of Justice have also been invited to attend.

Then there is the Easter break. The first meeting after the Easter break will be on 11 April. The secretariat received confirmation only this week on this one. We have confirmed we will meet with the University of Limerick in relation to its financial statements for 2022. One area of interest is governance and associated due diligence of the university's purchase of the Limerick city centre site in 2019 and the purchase of a number of houses for student accommodation in Rhebogue. If there are other matters, members can flag them and we will have them forwarded to the witnesses.

Moving on to 18 April, we will meet with officials from the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth in relation to the 2022 appropriation account for Vote 40. International protection accommodation has been flagged as an area of interest. I would ask that if Members have any other specific areas of interest for meetings, they would bring them to the attention of the committee and to the secretariat in the meantime in order that they can be flagged.

I call Deputy McAuliffe, who is joining us online.

I wonder if we can ask the clerk to the committee to circulate confirmation of attendance for next week's meeting on 22 February. It is merely to confirm which bodies have accepted our invitation.

We can do that. The ones I have read out have all been confirmed.

Excellent. That is great. I thank the Chair.

That is my understanding about all of those. I discussed it with the clerk to the committee yesterday. Deputy Ó Cathasaigh wants to come in.

I am conscious I miss a number of these afternoon meetings but the Office of Public Works, OPW, was listed on the work programme at one stage and has slipped off it. Would the Chair be able to tell me what-----

The Office of Public Works was on my list but there has not been a fixture set with it yet. We can add it. Are there any specific issues?

There are a number of issues but I will come back to the committee on those.

Okay. We will add the OPW if that is agreeable to the committee. The Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board, IHRB, was on the list and we have been trying to arrange a date with it. Those two organisations need to be put into the frame, the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board and the Office of Public Works. If everybody is happy with that, that concludes our consideration of the work programme.

I will move on to item five on the public agenda, any other business. Do members wish to raise any matter under any other business? If not, we will go into private session before adjourning until 9.30 a.m. on 22 February when we will engage with the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media; Sport Ireland; the Football Association of Ireland, FAI, and the Schoolboys/girls Football Association of Ireland, SFAI. Go raibh míle maith agaibh.

The committee went into private session at 1.41 p.m. and adjourned at 3.01 p.m. until 9.30 a.m. on Thursday, 22 February 2024.
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