Results 21,041-21,060 of 34,956 for speaker:Seán Fleming
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (3 May 2018)
Seán Fleming: That will be on the work programme. No. 1252 from Robert Watt, Secretary General, Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, dated 26 April 2018 is a reply to information requested regarding the national lottery in respect of confidentiality clauses and unclaimed prizes. The company running the national lottery, Premier Lotteries Ireland, will not release the value of unclaimed prizes...
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (3 May 2018)
Seán Fleming: The Deputy's comments are totally valid and this reply stating the information is confidential is unsatisfactory. It is stated that unclaimed prizes go back into further marketing of the games.
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (3 May 2018)
Seán Fleming: As a best option, the committee has to be satisfied that the regulator has examined it and checked it out and that she ensures-----
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (3 May 2018)
Seán Fleming: -----and can give the committee an assurance.
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (3 May 2018)
Seán Fleming: Is it a parliamentary question?
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (3 May 2018)
Seán Fleming: They are refusing to give the information to the regulator.
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (3 May 2018)
Seán Fleming: We are not finished with this topic. With regard to unclaimed prizes, the contract was signed by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. They are the people who gave this contract. I believe then Minister, Deputy Howlin was heavily involved in that legislation in the last Dáil. Regulation is in place since. During the debate on that legislation all of these questions were...
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (3 May 2018)
Seán Fleming: We have done that and we have had a reply saying that the contract is commercially sensitive.
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (3 May 2018)
Seán Fleming: We will make the point that as Premier Lotteries Ireland has the monopoly, is the only operator and has the contract for at least 20 years, releasing information does not compromise its position because there is no-one else in competition with it. We will follow it up.
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (3 May 2018)
Seán Fleming: It is a 20-year contract.
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (3 May 2018)
Seán Fleming: The bottom line is that the committee will ask that a research officer would check through the debates on this topic. I would be shocked if it was not discussed during the passage of the legislation. I was involved during that and I am sure it was discussed. We will also take it up with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. We will ask how the assurances given in the Dáil...
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (3 May 2018)
Seán Fleming: Yes, that would all figure.
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (3 May 2018)
Seán Fleming: There will be another way of getting the information. The legislation specifies the amount of the gross proceeds to be paid out in prizes. If that percentage is met, it is as far as we could possibly go. If what is being specified in the legislation is being met, there is a little bit of ground for us to cover yet in that regard.
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (3 May 2018)
Seán Fleming: There are a couple of points; the regulator has the information-----
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (3 May 2018)
Seán Fleming: Yes but she might be able to give us some assurances. The questions are valid and the committee will write and follow up the transcript of the legislation around the issue of unclaimed prizes, and we will see how it translated into the contract.
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (3 May 2018)
Seán Fleming: It goes back into promotion. The contract says that it goes back into promoting new games and it "may" go into topping up prizes, not "shall" go into topping up prizes.
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (3 May 2018)
Seán Fleming: No, I specifically stated it can only go into the promotion of games and it may go into top-up prizes. The unclaimed prizes can be spent on marketing but it cannot be taken out in a dividend.
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (3 May 2018)
Seán Fleming: We have a little road to travel on this one and we are not finished with the topic yet. The Comptroller and Auditor General audits the regulator's accounts. Does Mr. McCarthy know whether the accounts of the lottery operator are published in Ireland?
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (3 May 2018)
Seán Fleming: We will check that out. Correspondence No. 1253, from Robert Watt, Secretary General of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, provides an information note on the models used to protect capital investment by the State in privately or charitably owned institutions. We requested this information following correspondence on Clonkeen College's school playing fields. I propose we...
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (3 May 2018)
Seán Fleming: This means 87% of public bodies have submitted their accounts, which is a major improvement on last year, as a result of us highlighting that issue. Only 13% have not done so. The sector of public bodies in Ireland that was most in arrears last year and all previous years was the education sector and the education and training boards. Last year, only one submitted its accounts on time....