Results 3,381-3,400 of 8,745 for speaker:Verona Murphy

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Verona Murphy: Will Secretary General give three examples of where the Department has done that on foot of the most recent reports?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Verona Murphy: Would the Secretary General give me an example of what changes were made on foot of the reports? I am trying to establish here that IGEES is working and that it is having an impact. Is it only more reports that sit on a shelf?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Verona Murphy: Can the Secretary General give me an example, please?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Verona Murphy: I appreciate that. Based on my time limit, has the Secretary General have any other examples?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Verona Murphy: Such as, in the case of carers?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Verona Murphy: Will the Secretary General go back to carers for me? What about half-rate carers? Has the Department decided to increase it or reduce it? What are the numbers involved? I assume these are family carers.

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Verona Murphy: Given that they save the country so much money in the long term, I would hope not. Ultimately, the care of some of our people that is being carried out by family carers and carers in receipt of carer's allowance is saving the State approximately €500,000 on an individual basis. There are far more worthy things, I would assume, that the Secretary General could have come up with. I...

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Verona Murphy: On the value-for-money aspect, how do we establish that we are getting €6 billion worth of value out of local authorities if there is no real oversight?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Verona Murphy: That does not come under the remit of this committee. Does the Department interact with that service?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Verona Murphy: This is my final question. Mr. Moloney is the Secretary General of the Department. In a personal capacity in performing that role, is he happy that there is sufficient oversight of that kind of money with local authorities? Does he take any responsibility in the context of stating whether we do or do not have sufficient oversight regarding €6 billion in public moneys?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Verona Murphy: Is the Secretary General happy with them?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Verona Murphy: Could Mr. Moloney make recommendations in his capacity as the Secretary General of the Department for better oversight?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Verona Murphy: I would appreciate that. It is something that needs to be looked at. If the Secretary General could submit that to us, I can come back to it.

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Verona Murphy: I return to the points about value for money and oversight. Mr. Moloney is the accountable person and someone in his position in the public sector or in a public sector body has an ongoing obligation to demonstrate to this committee in particular that what is happening with Government and public spending is good value for money. I have not heard anything today that demonstrates how he does...

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Verona Murphy: I understand the Accounting Officer is responsible but what I am asking is what Mr. Moloney benchmarks the Accounting Officer's report against when he has sight of it. Does he benchmark it against other countries or against the private sector delivering a three-bedroom house over a county council or social housing project? What does he use?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Verona Murphy: I will give a specific instance that comes to mind and relates to the housing assistance payment, HAP, on which we have an extravagant spend. I know it is the system we have and without extra supply, we are not going to overcome it. Would Mr. Moloney believe that several people have contacted me pointing out that the housing assistance department in Limerick has been writing to them on a...

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Verona Murphy: As a public representative, I have engaged with HAP and I have got nowhere. How would the Department identify that? I do not know how many cases of this there are. It is clearly a huge waste of money on postage. Somebody is clearly not doing, or does not understand their job, because if they are supposed to be stopping the tenant's housing assistance payment and it never happens, how is...

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Verona Murphy: Is that kind of wastage within Mr. Moloney's remit?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Verona Murphy: It is either in Mr. Moloney's remit or it is of interest. It is of interest to us all to save money.

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Verona Murphy: Would Mr. Moloney consider asking the Accounting Officer in that Department what the story is with that?