Results 5,941-5,960 of 21,440 for speaker:Mary Lou McDonald

Public Accounts Committee: Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (11 Dec 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: It was 11 in the clinic's senior management ranks. It strikes from everything said by the witnesses that they find the HSE to be a bit of a pest. They seem to be very happy to take the money. Why would they not be because it is more than 80% of the clinic's entire funding stream? However, when it comes to observing the rules or respecting the governance criteria, they are not so...

Public Accounts Committee: Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (11 Dec 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: The board's actions have been deeply disrespectful of the HSE, if I might suggest. It moved unilaterally to put in place Mr. Conlan, a member of the governing fellowship for many years. It spun some entirely implausible fiction around outside assistance from a recruitment agency. It then claimed-----

Public Accounts Committee: Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (11 Dec 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: Hold on. It then claimed those files were confidential on the advice of the recruiter. It subsequently made them available to the HSE. On inspection, they reflect the fact that the board went ahead with an entirely internal procedure because it thought that was best.

Public Accounts Committee: Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (11 Dec 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: Of course they do. Nobody is disputing that.

Public Accounts Committee: Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (11 Dec 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: Yes, it is.

Public Accounts Committee: Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (11 Dec 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: No. It is the manner of the appointment that is the problem. Of course the directors have duties that they have to fulfil. Nobody is gain-saying that but as a director of the Central Remedial Clinic, Mr. Nugent must be cognisant of the fact that the vast bulk of the clinic's funding comes from the HSE. It is public money. He also has to be cognisant of the fact that in association with...

Public Accounts Committee: Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (11 Dec 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: That is a diversion. Mr. Martin has changed his tune from half an hour ago in terms of what ---

Public Accounts Committee: Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (11 Dec 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: Excuse me. Mr. Martin gave a robust defence of the integrity, position and decision-making capacities of the directors. He cited company law and suggested that to respect the regulations, rules and oversight associated with substantial public moneys would somehow run counter to the standing of the board. I am putting it to him that is rubbish. It is a very lame defence of what went on...

Public Accounts Committee: Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (11 Dec 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: Would Mr. Nugent accept now, with the benefit of hindsight, that the board has failed in that? In fact, the actions of the directors, collectively, have potentially undermined the ethos of the clinic and have, one imagines, caused terrible distress for the staff and users of the services. They have also gravely dented public confidence, the public upon which the CRC relies for charitable...

Public Accounts Committee: Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (11 Dec 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: That is not the issue and Mr. Nugent well knows it. The issue here is about the board, when making a senior appointment, going through a process that is open, transparent and beyond reproach. I would imagine that in any set of circumstances for a service such as the CRC, that would be the standard to be applied but particularly so when the clinic is in receipt of substantial public moneys....

Public Accounts Committee: Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (11 Dec 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: That is the private pension scheme.

Public Accounts Committee: Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (11 Dec 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: We heard that 70 staff members are involved in the scheme. Is that correct?

Public Accounts Committee: Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (11 Dec 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: What about the balance of the staff?

Public Accounts Committee: Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (11 Dec 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: Why are the 70 staff in the alternative scheme not in the voluntary hospital superannuation scheme?

Public Accounts Committee: Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (11 Dec 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: Is that discussion with the HSE still live?

Public Accounts Committee: Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (11 Dec 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: Some suggestion was made in the course of the week that perhaps you would not appear before the committee. I need you to tell me that it was always your intention to come before this committee.

Public Accounts Committee: Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (11 Dec 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: If management, a member of the board or whomsoever was the appropriate person had approached you at any stage in respect of your salary and had set out the facts to you, in terms of the sourcing of the moneys, the current climate, public sector pay policy, the reputation and standing of the clinic and so on - all of the issues that are now at play in the public domain - would you have been...

Public Accounts Committee: Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (11 Dec 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: You would have considered it.

Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Instruction to Committee (12 Dec 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: The rushed manner in which this measure is being introduced has been already referred to. In essence, it is a substantive legislative measure in its own right. The Minister is correct in saying that he gave us notice in September that he would be bringing this matter forward. However, we did not envisage it would be done at the tail-end of this session in such a hurried and rushed fashion....

Leaders' Questions (12 Dec 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: Everyone agrees the testimony given yesterday to the Committee of Public Accounts by former and current members of the board of the Central Remedial Clinic, CRC, was both shocking in content and arrogant in its delivery. Members now have it that in addition to paying top-ups to senior executives, there also are gold-plated retirement packages being doled out and appointments being made in...