Results 3,841-3,860 of 34,779 for speaker:Seán Fleming

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 6 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 18 - Salary Overpayments to Teachers
Vote 26 - Department of Education and Skills (28 Feb 2013)

Seán Fleming: Is it not now a bit late, three quarters of the way through the academic year, for the Secretary General to inquire whether students are informed of such a right or of the existence of an independent appeals board? We are almost at the end of the process. The Secretary General indicated that most of them have been dealt with and I accept that 55,000 out of 69,000 have been completed....

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 6 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 18 - Salary Overpayments to Teachers
Vote 26 - Department of Education and Skills (28 Feb 2013)

Seán Fleming: Mr. Ó Foghlú contradicted himself there, if he does not mind me saying so. He stated the Department has an independent statutory appeals board in place and the Department did not allow the Ombudsman into the situation because that would be second guessing an independent appeals board. I am confirming to him the Ombudsman has stated she will have the right to examine these cases...

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 6 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 18 - Salary Overpayments to Teachers
Vote 26 - Department of Education and Skills (28 Feb 2013)

Seán Fleming: The right of citizens to go to the Ombudsman when dealing with public bodies is fundamental. It does a grave disservice to students for whoever drafted the scheme to exclude the right to go to the Ombudsman in the first year of its operation. Probably, it was decided there would be such a mess that the Ombudsman should not be involved at the outset but that she could become involved in a...

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 6 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 18 - Salary Overpayments to Teachers
Vote 26 - Department of Education and Skills (28 Feb 2013)

Seán Fleming: Did the Secretary General find the figures on how many were granted?

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 6 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 18 - Salary Overpayments to Teachers
Vote 26 - Department of Education and Skills (28 Feb 2013)

Seán Fleming: Did the Secretary General find the number of applications that have been granted or refused?

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 6 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 18 - Salary Overpayments to Teachers
Vote 26 - Department of Education and Skills (28 Feb 2013)

Seán Fleming: Certainly, at least one third of the students are being refused where decisions are completed. Either way, even if it is 32,000 or 33,000, and 16,000 have been refused, definitely, one third of all applications are being refused. Perhaps that is correct, that they do not pass the means test. We understand that. It seems a high figure, that there is one third of all applicants being...

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 6 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 18 - Salary Overpayments to Teachers
Vote 26 - Department of Education and Skills (28 Feb 2013)

Seán Fleming: I have a few points I want to cover. Under school transport, who decides where the measuring points are in deciding the distance between a student's home and his or her secondary school given that the distance to the nearest school determines the student's eligibility? Would the Secretary General outline the system? Who does the measuring? Is it the Department or Bus Éireann?

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 6 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 18 - Salary Overpayments to Teachers
Vote 26 - Department of Education and Skills (28 Feb 2013)

Seán Fleming: Given that the Department pays for it, what guidelines has the Department given Bus Éireann?

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 6 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 18 - Salary Overpayments to Teachers
Vote 26 - Department of Education and Skills (28 Feb 2013)

Seán Fleming: Getting on to the specifics, my real question - I understand they measure the distance - relates to towns where there are a number of schools where there is an issue with what is called the central measuring point. Would the Secretary General speak about who picked the central measuring point, probably whenever the system was established? How was the measuring point identified? It is fine...

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 6 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 18 - Salary Overpayments to Teachers
Vote 26 - Department of Education and Skills (28 Feb 2013)

Seán Fleming: Is the Secretary General satisfied Bus Éireann selects the correct central measuring points? If the company has a wrong measuring point, it may be carrying students it should not carry or it may be excluding students who it should carry.

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 6 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 18 - Salary Overpayments to Teachers
Vote 26 - Department of Education and Skills (28 Feb 2013)

Seán Fleming: I refer specifically to Portlaoise where, as the Secretary General will be well aware, there is one of the finest PPP school projects in the country. He will be aware that those two new school buildings are at the edge of the town, one mile or two away from the old school sites. The Department and CIE have not moved their central measuring point, even though the schools have moved up to two...

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 6 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 18 - Salary Overpayments to Teachers
Vote 26 - Department of Education and Skills (28 Feb 2013)

Seán Fleming: What of the general principle of the central measuring point? Who selects it?

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 6 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 18 - Salary Overpayments to Teachers
Vote 26 - Department of Education and Skills (28 Feb 2013)

Seán Fleming: The Department pays Bus Éireann. That is like somebody saying-----

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 6 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 18 - Salary Overpayments to Teachers
Vote 26 - Department of Education and Skills (28 Feb 2013)

Seán Fleming: Okay. On the general question, whether it is the State transport company or the Department of Education and Skills, it is between them who is responsible for getting the students to and from school. If there is a wrong central measuring point being used, how can that be corrected?

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 6 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 18 - Salary Overpayments to Teachers
Vote 26 - Department of Education and Skills (28 Feb 2013)

Seán Fleming: I will send the Secretary General the specifics because, like every other Oireachtas Member in my area, I have been trying to sort out the matter. It is not merely a personal difficulty. I have a quick question on overpayment of teachers' salaries. It is a question I ran into previously and it is a complex area. It has nothing to do with the report about teachers' salaries and how the...

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 6 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 18 - Salary Overpayments to Teachers
Vote 26 - Department of Education and Skills (28 Feb 2013)

Seán Fleming: I would not expect the Secretary General to have a note on this topic. If somebody has the information, that would be excellent. Perhaps Mr. Moloney could send a note to the committee on the number cases of recoupment from the Department of Social Protection in regard to maternity benefit over the past five or six years? That should be an appropriation-in-aid. What is the...

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 6 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 18 - Salary Overpayments to Teachers
Vote 26 - Department of Education and Skills (28 Feb 2013)

Seán Fleming: How long is that arrangement in place?

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 6 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 18 - Salary Overpayments to Teachers
Vote 26 - Department of Education and Skills (28 Feb 2013)

Seán Fleming: Something must have happened up to 2009. The Department was not claiming when it should have been or something like that. Why was that system changed? Would it not be simpler to pay the benefit directly to the Department instead of tens of thousands of teachers having to make individual claims? If somebody goes out on maternity leave, the Department will be informed. In terms of...

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 6 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 18 - Salary Overpayments to Teachers
Vote 26 - Department of Education and Skills (28 Feb 2013)

Seán Fleming: Therefore, the Department is examining this issue.

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 6 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 18 - Salary Overpayments to Teachers
Vote 26 - Department of Education and Skills (28 Feb 2013)

Seán Fleming: What about maternity benefit?