Results 25,341-25,360 of 34,956 for speaker:Seán Fleming

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (6 Dec 2018)

Seán Fleming: I do not know. Deputy Connolly has pointed out an obvious issue. We will ask for clarification on that point. If it is as it appears, that is great. If there is a subtle distinction in the letter that the Deputy has spotted, we need to know about it. We will ask for confirmation of that particular point. The next item of correspondence is No. 1754 B from Mr. John McCarthy, Secretary...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (6 Dec 2018)

Seán Fleming: I wish to make a broader point – I will conclude on this – on the concept of having a credit policy drafted by the Department to be implemented by 31 different local authorities, 31 different housing officers and all the staff under them. All those involved have varying levels of training on how to process applications. Some counties have small numbers while others have big...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (6 Dec 2018)

Seán Fleming: It is.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (6 Dec 2018)

Seán Fleming: What page are you on, Deputy Connolly?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (6 Dec 2018)

Seán Fleming: That is correspondence number 1754(3).

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (6 Dec 2018)

Seán Fleming: We will ask for a breakdown of the number of people on housing assistance payment.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (6 Dec 2018)

Seán Fleming: They are listed on page 5 of that document. We will ask for those figures.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (6 Dec 2018)

Seán Fleming: How many on the housing assistance payment are on the transfer list? Some might not be on the list.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (6 Dec 2018)

Seán Fleming: They are all there. We will seek a breakdown of those figures. In effect, they should be added to the figures.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (6 Dec 2018)

Seán Fleming: It is not current expenditure. I want to clarify this. We will still be talking about capital expenditure. We have not completed capital expenditure.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (6 Dec 2018)

Seán Fleming: Absolutely.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (6 Dec 2018)

Seán Fleming: We will do that. We will ask the Department. It is the Department's responsibility if we cannot get the 31 chief executives here. It is the conduit to those. We will not accept any answer on that date suggesting it is a matter for the local authority. They are the Department of----

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (6 Dec 2018)

Seán Fleming: That is good.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (6 Dec 2018)

Seán Fleming: They might attend. We need to get the breakdown by local authority. On the credit policy, I am told it is historical. They never published it in the past. The tradition is alive and well. It may be a Victorian rule not to tell the people what is going on; I do not know. Correspondence No. 1755 is from Mr. John McKeon, Secretary General, Department of Employment Affairs and Social...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (6 Dec 2018)

Seán Fleming: I agree with the Deputy that we have no information on how the final sum was agreed. It just refers to the protocol for transfer. We are writing to the Valuation Office. The Valuation Office came into the process because it is a transfer between two State bodies and the Valuation Office acts as an independent arbiter of what is in the overall interests of the taxpayer - not necessarily...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (6 Dec 2018)

Seán Fleming: We will focus on the narrow question first - the specifics. Sometimes when asking a specific question, it might throw up a broader issue. We may come back to that if we are not satisfied with the response to this.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (6 Dec 2018)

Seán Fleming: It was also dependent on the acquiescence of Dublin City Council agreeing a material contravention. That was all assumed in advance. As it was for a school, it may not be an invalid assumption that councillors would support a material contravention for a school site. We agree most councillors would. However, we need specifics and the comparisons used. I take the point that when we get...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (6 Dec 2018)

Seán Fleming: The Comptroller and Auditor General does not propose to share them with us because they identify people and entities by name. The Comptroller and Auditor General has access to the information. What I propose is we note and publish this but hold it over for discussion at the next meeting.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (6 Dec 2018)

Seán Fleming: We have requested a note from the parliamentary legal adviser on this particular issue.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (6 Dec 2018)

Seán Fleming: That is in train. Correspondence No. 1765 B is from Ms Dee Forbes, director general of RTÉ, dated 30 November 2018, and provides an update requested by the committee on the Eversheds Sutherland report. I want to read this into the record so people who are listening will understand what is in the letter.In keeping with the Eversheds Sutherland review, the detailed analysis continues on a...