Results 5,541-5,560 of 14,090 for speaker:Marc MacSharry
- Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Environment, Community and Local Government (2 Mar 2017) Marc MacSharry: I know the Department would engage, but I am asking if it would proactively suggest through what was the county managers association or whatever normal liaison forum it has that it would seek to do that because inevitably local authorities seem to be paying punitive rates compared with those available to the HFA or the NTMA. That ultimately eats into the amount discretionary funds available...
- Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Environment, Community and Local Government (2 Mar 2017) Marc MacSharry: What follow up measures are in place to ensure that purchases made are used for the purpose for which they were purchased? If a local authority bought land for housing after the Department sanctioned the loan and it used it for football fields or recreation, is there any follow-up procedure?
- Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Environment, Community and Local Government (2 Mar 2017) Marc MacSharry: I am a little unclear. If the Department sanctioned a local authority to borrow money to buy land for housing and it was not used for that, is there any follow-up or oversight? Are there any penalties, for example, if a local authority borrowed €10 million, bought land for housing and then used it for recreation?
- Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Environment, Community and Local Government (2 Mar 2017) Marc MacSharry: We have no direct remit over local authorities but the Department has a remit in terms of the local government audit service. How many professional and support staff are assigned to that local government audit service?
- Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Environment, Community and Local Government (2 Mar 2017) Marc MacSharry: It is not big deal, it is 31 or 32.
- Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Environment, Community and Local Government (2 Mar 2017) Marc MacSharry: Is the number sufficient?
- Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Environment, Community and Local Government (2 Mar 2017) Marc MacSharry: Is the value for money remit of the audit service discretionary?
- Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Environment, Community and Local Government (2 Mar 2017) Marc MacSharry: I know that, but it is discretionary?
- Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Environment, Community and Local Government (2 Mar 2017) Marc MacSharry: The audit is the priority. Is the extent of value for money audits dependent on what is left over and what might be available? If that is the case, how does the service select what to scrutinise in terms of value for money?
- Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Environment, Community and Local Government (2 Mar 2017) Marc MacSharry: It is pretty discretionary.
- Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Environment, Community and Local Government (2 Mar 2017) Marc MacSharry: I want to cite a specific example in Galway where 7.8 acres of land in the townland of Kerraun Rahoon, Galway were purchased by Galway City Council in 2008. We have no remit to call in the local authority. Was an application made to borrow money for the purchase of those lands, or is the Secretary General familiar with the case?
- Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Environment, Community and Local Government (2 Mar 2017) Marc MacSharry: Was an application made by Galway City Council to borrow money for those lands?
- Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Environment, Community and Local Government (2 Mar 2017) Marc MacSharry: It is 7.8 acres in the townland of Kerraun Rahoon, Galway. The lands were purchased from Sawgrass Properties in late 2008.
- Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Environment, Community and Local Government (2 Mar 2017) Marc MacSharry: Was that money borrowed through the Housing Finance Agency?
- Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Environment, Community and Local Government (2 Mar 2017) Marc MacSharry: That was for the purpose of building houses.
- Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Environment, Community and Local Government (2 Mar 2017) Marc MacSharry: In that process would the Department, under section 106, have asked for valuations?
- Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Environment, Community and Local Government (2 Mar 2017) Marc MacSharry: Some evidence that has come to the committee in this regard suggests that the elected members were not asked to sanction this until such time as the process was agreed and the price was agreed. Would the Secretary General be aware of that?
- Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Environment, Community and Local Government (2 Mar 2017) Marc MacSharry: The practice has become that the executive decides what to borrow, what to buy, it does the deal and if it can be dragged cross the line at a council meeting, we are out the gap. Is that the type of process we have?
- Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Environment, Community and Local Government (2 Mar 2017) Marc MacSharry: No, and nor am I doing so, but it seems unusual that the origin of land acquisition, housing and so on would not originate with the elected members, as opposed to them engaging in a rubber-stamping exercise. Would the Secretary General be aware, surprised or concerned that the valuations that informed this purchase were prepared by the vendor?
- Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Environment, Community and Local Government (2 Mar 2017) Marc MacSharry: Was the Department aware that these lands were purchased in November 2008 by the council for €10.5 million and then were purchased by the vendor five months earlier for €6.4 million?