Imelda Munster (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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I want to follow on from what Deputy O'Connor was asking, and I know Ms Hurley said there are stringent criteria and checks and balances in place now. How confident would Ms Hurley be that those additional controls are sufficient? I know the Department recouped the money and I was interested to hear Ms Hurley say that, but local authority management or directors of services etc. would have known full well they were misusing public money or certainly not using it for the purposes for which it was allocated to them. My fear would be that where there is a lack of accountability or reprimand, it leaves the door open for that type of misuse to happen again. On the decision that was taken that to recoup the funding was sufficient, was there a discussion about whether the particular person or section in the local authority would face dismissal, disciplinary hearings, or basically be held to account other than just the money being taken back?