Results 23,301-23,320 of 26,705 for speaker:John McGuinness

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Tax Appeals Commission (Revised) (26 Jan 2022)

John McGuinness: I remind members of the note on privilege. Members attending from outside the Leinster House campus may have just limited privilege, whereas those who are attending the meeting or on the campus of Leinster House are fully covered. Would the Minister like to make an opening statement?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Tax Appeals Commission (Revised) (26 Jan 2022)

John McGuinness: Is the Deputy looking at professional consultancy and other services?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Tax Appeals Commission (Revised) (26 Jan 2022)

John McGuinness: How did it feel when Deputy Doherty was over there?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Tax Appeals Commission (Revised) (26 Jan 2022)

John McGuinness: I want to support Deputy Tóibín's comments about the increase of €81,000 plus €3,000 for Robert Watt. I refer to our report. While we can all take political positions on many issues, there is a factual aspect to this increase, as well as how it was arrived at. Quite frankly, the manner by which that increased was arrived at was bad governance, bad administration and...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Tax Appeals Commission (Revised) (26 Jan 2022)

John McGuinness: Ministerial drivers are mentioned in a general way. Will that cost now be covered by the Department of Justice because I understand this whole area is being changed?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Tax Appeals Commission (Revised) (26 Jan 2022)

John McGuinness: Regarding the Comptroller and Auditor General, in the context of Vote 8, a significant number of agencies and accounts are audited by that office. Why has the overall spending on that Vote not increased to give a greater level of resources to the Comptroller and Auditor General to enable him to delve further into the detail of these audits? It is clear from the work of the Committee of...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Tax Appeals Commission (Revised) (26 Jan 2022)

John McGuinness: I understand that point and I acknowledge the positive work done by the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General. Having examined the role of the office over the past ten to 15 years, however, has the Government not determined that there is a clear signal from that analysis of a requirement for the office to do much more detailed work on the accounts? Should it perhaps be looking at...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Tax Appeals Commission (Revised) (26 Jan 2022)

John McGuinness: The amount of money being spent in, for example, the third level sector is enormous. The Minister, Deputy Harris, is constantly reforming and creating new entities. History over recent years shows a greater study is required of how that money is spent. Now a greater amount of money is being spent and there needs to be a focus on sectors like that. I hope staff levels in the Comptroller...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Tax Appeals Commission (Revised) (26 Jan 2022)

John McGuinness: I am not singling the Department out and respect what the Minister, Deputy Harris, is doing. I have no issue with that. He is doing a fine job. I am talking about the audit of all these agencies, departments and so on that the Comptroller and Auditor General is responsible for. The reform I am asking about is the obvious one of bringing everything under the Comptroller and Auditor...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Tax Appeals Commission (Revised) (26 Jan 2022)

John McGuinness: Okay. Finally, I ask the Minister about the bank and the repayment of moneys into his Department. We bailed out the banks and I see lots of big figures here for the banking sector. Will the Minister explain those?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Tax Appeals Commission (Revised) (26 Jan 2022)

John McGuinness: Yes, but where does the money being recouped from the banks from the crash stand now? What level are we at there? Is it all paid back?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Tax Appeals Commission (Revised) (26 Jan 2022)

John McGuinness: That is fine.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Tax Appeals Commission (Revised) (26 Jan 2022)

John McGuinness: I thank Deputy Doherty. Any further information the Minister wishes to send may be sent to the clerk. We have now finished our consideration of the Supplementary Estimates for the Finance group. A message to that effect will be sent to the Clerk of the Dáil in accordance with Standing Order 101. I remind members that we are to meet at 3.30 p.m. in private session. The select...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Message to Dáil (26 Jan 2022)

John McGuinness: In accordance with Standing Order 101, the following message will be sent to the Dáil: The Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Reform and Taoiseach has completed its consideration of the following Revised Estimates for public services for the year ending 31 December 2022: Vote 7 — Office of the Minister for Finance; Vote 8 — Office of the Comptroller and...

Higher Education Authority Bill 2022: Second Stage (Resumed) (2 Feb 2022)

John McGuinness: Since the Minister was appointed and the new Department established, he has certainly made huge strides on the reform of this area and indeed funding for it. That must be acknowledged. He has cut new ground in almost every part of the third level sector. When he visited the Institute of Technology Carlow he made quite an impression with the interest he took in all the projects that were...