Results 3,321-3,340 of 10,573 for speaker:Patrick O'Donovan

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements of the Higher Education Authority 2013
General Report No. 85 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Accountability and Governance on the National College of Art and Design (22 Jan 2015)

Patrick O'Donovan: For example, did it carry out a review of the financial statement into the National College of Art and Design, NCAD, in 2005 and 2006?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements of the Higher Education Authority 2013
General Report No. 85 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Accountability and Governance on the National College of Art and Design (22 Jan 2015)

Patrick O'Donovan: It is probably fair to say that as more requirements were being placed on institutions to carry out particular work relating to governance, the delays in which certified accounts were provided lengthened. The delay in 2004 and 2005 was five months - which could be seen as fantastic - but this went to 39 months. In reviewing 2008 and 2009, when the HEA knew that there was no set of certified...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements of the Higher Education Authority 2013
General Report No. 85 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Accountability and Governance on the National College of Art and Design (22 Jan 2015)

Patrick O'Donovan: Mr. Roche has had conversations about certified accounts with the NCAD between 2009 and now but what action has been taken as we knew there were no certified accounts?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements of the Higher Education Authority 2013
General Report No. 85 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Accountability and Governance on the National College of Art and Design (22 Jan 2015)

Patrick O'Donovan: Did the authority ask, for example, how many times the audit committee met?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements of the Higher Education Authority 2013
General Report No. 85 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Accountability and Governance on the National College of Art and Design (22 Jan 2015)

Patrick O'Donovan: Was it not seen as important to ask that?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements of the Higher Education Authority 2013
General Report No. 85 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Accountability and Governance on the National College of Art and Design (22 Jan 2015)

Patrick O'Donovan: It would have been seen as important to ask that but it was not asked?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements of the Higher Education Authority 2013
General Report No. 85 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Accountability and Governance on the National College of Art and Design (22 Jan 2015)

Patrick O'Donovan: Did Mr. Roche at any stage ask Professor McGonagle or previous directors at NCAD how many times the audit committee met?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements of the Higher Education Authority 2013
General Report No. 85 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Accountability and Governance on the National College of Art and Design (22 Jan 2015)

Patrick O'Donovan: Why not?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements of the Higher Education Authority 2013
General Report No. 85 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Accountability and Governance on the National College of Art and Design (22 Jan 2015)

Patrick O'Donovan: I am referring specifically to this institution. The HEA does a very detailed analysis but I presume the first box to be ticked in any analysis is whether there is a certified set of accounts.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements of the Higher Education Authority 2013
General Report No. 85 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Accountability and Governance on the National College of Art and Design (22 Jan 2015)

Patrick O'Donovan: With that yes-or-no question, the answer was "No" for five years.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements of the Higher Education Authority 2013
General Report No. 85 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Accountability and Governance on the National College of Art and Design (22 Jan 2015)

Patrick O'Donovan: That is five years ago. For the past five years, in the conversations with people from NCAD, did Mr. Roche did not ask at any stage how many times the audit committee had met? Better still, did he not ask why the accounts were not ready?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements of the Higher Education Authority 2013
General Report No. 85 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Accountability and Governance on the National College of Art and Design (22 Jan 2015)

Patrick O'Donovan: I asked Mr. Roche and maybe he would like to comment.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements of the Higher Education Authority 2013
General Report No. 85 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Accountability and Governance on the National College of Art and Design (22 Jan 2015)

Patrick O'Donovan: That is not the question I asked. I know there is an audit committee and that such a committee is required under the code of governance. Given that he knew for five years that there were no certified accounts, there are obviously problems in the institution. One does not have to be a rocket scientist to figure that out. Did anybody in the HEA, which over this timeframe pumped €100...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements of the Higher Education Authority 2013
General Report No. 85 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Accountability and Governance on the National College of Art and Design (22 Jan 2015)

Patrick O'Donovan: That is not the question I asked.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements of the Higher Education Authority 2013
General Report No. 85 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Accountability and Governance on the National College of Art and Design (22 Jan 2015)

Patrick O'Donovan: Does Mr. Boland think it was a failure on his part not to ask that question?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements of the Higher Education Authority 2013
General Report No. 85 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Accountability and Governance on the National College of Art and Design (22 Jan 2015)

Patrick O'Donovan: I want to move on to the Department of Education and Skills but before I do so, is Mr. Boland satisfied that, with €100 million in limbo because of a lack of certified accounts over five years, taking the college's word in informal conversations without asking if the audit had met or for the minutes of the committee was an appropriate course of action?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements of the Higher Education Authority 2013
General Report No. 85 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Accountability and Governance on the National College of Art and Design (22 Jan 2015)

Patrick O'Donovan: I finally got an answer. I asked that question approximately 15 minutes ago.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements of the Higher Education Authority 2013
General Report No. 85 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Accountability and Governance on the National College of Art and Design (22 Jan 2015)

Patrick O'Donovan: Given the huge gaps in governance, will Mr. Boland describe how he would define appropriate governance?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements of the Higher Education Authority 2013
General Report No. 85 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Accountability and Governance on the National College of Art and Design (22 Jan 2015)

Patrick O'Donovan: One would imagine the production of accounts would be part of that.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements of the Higher Education Authority 2013
General Report No. 85 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Accountability and Governance on the National College of Art and Design (22 Jan 2015)

Patrick O'Donovan: The HEA failed in that regard. If that is Mr. Boland's definition of appropriate governance, he failed to intervene to ensure the taxpayer was protected.