Results 10,101-10,120 of 34,729 for speaker:Seán Fleming

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (8 Nov 2018)

Seán Fleming: We know each education and training board has an internal audit committee but the question is how many of them have had the resources to carry out some internal audit work.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (8 Nov 2018)

Seán Fleming: The unit might be in Cavan.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (8 Nov 2018)

Seán Fleming: It is the internal audit function on a shared basis for all the education and training boards. I suspect some education and training boards have had no internal audit work carried out-----

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (8 Nov 2018)

Seán Fleming: We need to write to the Department to ask for the number of internal audit programmes or work carried out for each of the education and training boards. We can then see where are the gaps. We need to get that.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (8 Nov 2018)

Seán Fleming: In the Department there is a lack of adequate resourcing for the internal audit function nationwide.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (8 Nov 2018)

Seán Fleming: We will write to the Department about a full assessment.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (8 Nov 2018)

Seán Fleming: It is a centralised unit. We need to know the number of staff and how many internal audits have been carried out.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (8 Nov 2018)

Seán Fleming: We will ask the Department to give us a full breakdown on the internal audit function and staffing.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (8 Nov 2018)

Seán Fleming: We are getting there eventually. We should have tripped over this before now.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (8 Nov 2018)

Seán Fleming: We must accept the Department of Education and Skills was very poor in not getting timely financial statements from education and training boards in the first place. It will say this always happens in the merging of organisations and there is always a couple of years of build-up. However, that excuse is now well worn, to be honest. We have been on the case to get the accounts done and that...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (8 Nov 2018)

Seán Fleming: Yes.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (8 Nov 2018)

Seán Fleming: We will write to the Department on that basis and we might have to delve deeper when we get the response.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (8 Nov 2018)

Seán Fleming: We want to know what happened in 2017 and 2018, as well as the plans for 2019, and we will say that in our letter to the Department. That will give us a good and clear picture of whether there is improvement. The other two items are financial statements before us. They are the Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority clear audited opinion and the Heritage Fund.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (8 Nov 2018)

Seán Fleming: Okay. It is a clear audit opinion.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (8 Nov 2018)

Seán Fleming: We got the document on the OPW from a senior employee in the organisation. As there were some possibly defamatory remarks or a suggestion of possible corruption, we decided not to publish it without considering redacting it. The document was circulated to members. That was several days ago. I am not talking about the second letter and I will come to it in a moment. The document was...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (8 Nov 2018)

Seán Fleming: I am told something has arrived from the Office of Public Works today.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (8 Nov 2018)

Seán Fleming: We circulated the correspondence for this week over 24 hours ago. There is nothing else in the work programme we cannot discuss next week. We will just move on to today's business but before bringing in the witnesses, we must go into private session to discuss one item of correspondence.

Public Accounts Committee: Matters related to Medical Negligence, Open Disclosure, Cervical Cancer and Thalidomide Litigation (8 Nov 2018)

Seán Fleming: Today we will be dealing with matters related to medical negligence, open disclosure, CervicalCheck and thalidomide litigation. It follows our meeting on 10 May when we dealt with the State Claims Agency's financial statements for 2016, the cost implications of the CervicalCheck revelations and matters related to open disclosure. The Joint Committee on Health has engaged with Dr. Scally on...

Public Accounts Committee: Matters related to Medical Negligence, Open Disclosure, Cervical Cancer and Thalidomide Litigation (8 Nov 2018)

Seán Fleming: CervicalCheck is a key issue. Separately, we recently wrote to the State Claims Agency about the overall bill facing the State as a result of medical negligence. To be upfront, we sought very extensive details of the breakdown of the figure of €2.4 billion for medical negligence claims. We have received some information today and I spoke to Mr. Breen earlier in the week. Some...

Public Accounts Committee: Matters related to Medical Negligence, Open Disclosure, Cervical Cancer and Thalidomide Litigation (8 Nov 2018)

Seán Fleming: The figures are big. Mr. Breen has provided the figures per hospital, but he sees an issue in making the figures publicly available for the reasons he has outlined. We understand that and will discuss it again. The issue is that the figures are increasing each year. We are here to protect the interests of the taxpayer and would prefer the extra money that is being used to pay medical...