Results 3,881-3,900 of 10,573 for speaker:Patrick O'Donovan
- Public Accounts Committee: Special Report 90 of the Northern Ireland Audit Office and the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General
The Bytel Project (16 Apr 2015) Patrick O'Donovan: A whistleblower makes an allegation to the Department-----
- Public Accounts Committee: Special Report 90 of the Northern Ireland Audit Office and the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General
The Bytel Project (16 Apr 2015) Patrick O'Donovan: -----through a convoluted web and the Department, at some stage, realises that there is a problem and that €2 million has vanished into thin air, but nobody thought it important enough to tell the Minister.
- Public Accounts Committee: Special Report 90 of the Northern Ireland Audit Office and the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General
The Bytel Project (16 Apr 2015) Patrick O'Donovan: I know that; we have heard that several times.
- Public Accounts Committee: Special Report 90 of the Northern Ireland Audit Office and the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General
The Bytel Project (16 Apr 2015) Patrick O'Donovan: I know that. However, when the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources became aware of it, realised it was a problem and took action, although the action it took was very limited, why did it not tell the Minister?
- Public Accounts Committee: Special Report 90 of the Northern Ireland Audit Office and the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General
The Bytel Project (16 Apr 2015) Patrick O'Donovan: The Comptroller and Auditor General has produced a report which Mr. Griffin is before the Committee of Public Accounts today to discuss. Surely somebody in the Department, in advance of this meeting, would have deemed it important to find out whether the Minister of the day was apprised of the situation.
- Public Accounts Committee: Special Report 90 of the Northern Ireland Audit Office and the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General
The Bytel Project (16 Apr 2015) Patrick O'Donovan: Chairman, it is unbelievable that the Accounting Officer of a Department does not know if the Minister of the day was told that €2.3 million of taxpayers' money vanished into a vanity project that was never going to be-----
- Public Accounts Committee: Special Report 90 of the Northern Ireland Audit Office and the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General
The Bytel Project (16 Apr 2015) Patrick O'Donovan: With respect, the difference is that Ministers get fired. The Chairman asked Mr. Griffin earlier who had been fired because of this, and Mr. Griffin said nobody had been. Ministers are the people who ultimately carry the can for public expenditure. With the greatest respect, Mr. Griffin will not be held to the same level of accountability as a Minister. I feel as if I am on the set of an...
- Public Accounts Committee: Special Report 90 of the Northern Ireland Audit Office and the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General
The Bytel Project (16 Apr 2015) Patrick O'Donovan: That analysis was so forensic that we do not know where the racks are, we do not know how Deloitte managed to pluck €1.3 million out of the sky as it appears to have done in an economic appraisal, we do not have an invoice and it was also so forensic that all these years later we do not know if the Minister was told.
- Public Accounts Committee: Special Report 90 of the Northern Ireland Audit Office and the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General
The Bytel Project (16 Apr 2015) Patrick O'Donovan: From what we have heard so far, we are aware that the whistleblower was in some way connected with the company that purchased these things, so one would imagine that he would have known what the true value of these items was. He put a figure of €30,000 on it.
- Public Accounts Committee: Special Report 90 of the Northern Ireland Audit Office and the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General
The Bytel Project (16 Apr 2015) Patrick O'Donovan: In other words, its examination of the matter was not as forensic as we might have been led to believe?
- Public Accounts Committee: Special Report 90 of the Northern Ireland Audit Office and the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General
The Bytel Project (16 Apr 2015) Patrick O'Donovan: The review just looked at the issue of eligibility; it did not look at the outcome. We do not know where the racks are or whether they have any scrap value. We do not know who owns them or whether we will get anything back for the taxpayer. We are left with a lot of unanswered questions. It has cost £30,000 in investigations to get to this point.
- Public Accounts Committee: Special Report 90 of the Northern Ireland Audit Office and the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General
The Bytel Project (16 Apr 2015) Patrick O'Donovan: Was this the first knowledge the Ministers had of the issue?
- Public Accounts Committee: Special Report 90 of the Northern Ireland Audit Office and the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General
The Bytel Project (16 Apr 2015) Patrick O'Donovan: Was it at the January 2011 meeting the Ministers first had notice of the matter?
- Public Accounts Committee: Special Report 90 of the Northern Ireland Audit Office and the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General
The Bytel Project (16 Apr 2015) Patrick O'Donovan: Therefore, the first the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform who is ultimately the paymaster in this matter heard of it was from Mr. Colgan in January 2011?
- Public Accounts Committee: Special Report 90 of the Northern Ireland Audit Office and the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General
The Bytel Project (16 Apr 2015) Patrick O'Donovan: Is it the case that the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources did not inform the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform?
- Public Accounts Committee: Special Report 90 of the Northern Ireland Audit Office and the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General
The Bytel Project (16 Apr 2015) Patrick O'Donovan: To clarify, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform was informed of this matter by Mr. Colgan at the meeting of the North-South Ministerial Council and this was the first he had heard of it?
- Public Accounts Committee: Special Report 90 of the Northern Ireland Audit Office and the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General
The Bytel Project (16 Apr 2015) Patrick O'Donovan: That is unbelievable. This money has vanished; nobody was or will be fired as a consequence, and the first the person ultimately responsible for the State's expenditure knew of it was when Mr. Colgan notified him at the meeting of the North-South Ministerial Council.
- Public Accounts Committee: Special Report 90 of the Northern Ireland Audit Office and the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General
The Bytel Project (16 Apr 2015) Patrick O'Donovan: I do not have a difficulty with that. My concern is that there seems to have been no communication between the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, the Southern leg of the arrangement, and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform. Does Mr. Griffin accept that is a fair conclusion?
- Public Accounts Committee: Special Report 90 of the Northern Ireland Audit Office and the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General
The Bytel Project (16 Apr 2015) Patrick O'Donovan: However, the Minister was not.
- Public Accounts Committee: Special Report 90 of the Northern Ireland Audit Office and the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General
The Bytel Project (16 Apr 2015) Patrick O'Donovan: Mr. Griffin does not even know if his own Minister was informed.