Results 6,041-6,060 of 21,440 for speaker:Mary Lou McDonald
- Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 - Health
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (19 Dec 2013) Mary Lou McDonald: Certainly and that is the position as and from three months ago and no doubt, that is what the Department will seek to achieve going forward. I am not questioning that. We are now looking back on arrangements that were struck, payments that were made and contracts that were signed in the past. I am suggesting to Dr. McLoughlin, as is validated in the audited report, that there was...
- Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 - Health
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (19 Dec 2013) Mary Lou McDonald: I would encourage them to do so. The audit does not specify examples. I should emphasise that in one of its key findings on remuneration rates it refers to instances where "senior management salary rates differed" and to agencies. The fact that the report refers to instances and agencies in the plural suggests that more than one agency reported this particular experience. I am inclined,...
- Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 - Health
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (19 Dec 2013) Mary Lou McDonald: It is worth stating for the record that it is very clear from the report that it was Department of Health approval. I do not know if that indicates that these arrangements or discussions happened prior to the establishment of the HSE. I am not sure if that is the case but perhaps Mr. O'Brien would like to comment on that.
- Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 - Health
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (19 Dec 2013) Mary Lou McDonald: Can I ask Mr. O'Brien, for the purposes of clarity, what document he is quoting from?
- Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 - Health
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (19 Dec 2013) Mary Lou McDonald: For the information of this committee, what is the date of issue of that document?
- Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 - Health
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (19 Dec 2013) Mary Lou McDonald: It is the same circular letter to which Dr. McLoughlin referred. Is that correct?
- Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 - Health
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (19 Dec 2013) Mary Lou McDonald: Does Mr. O'Brien understand that my question refers to events, actions and oversight - or the lack of it - prior to September 2013?
- Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 - Health
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (19 Dec 2013) Mary Lou McDonald: We can come to the policy later. I am asking Mr. O'Brien to step back in time because these controversies and breaches occurred well before 27 September 2013. The circular letter of that date and the work we are doing now represent remedial action to clean up the mess. The mess occurred prior to September 2013.
- Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 - Health
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (19 Dec 2013) Mary Lou McDonald: Is Mr. O'Brien saying that whatever about the Department of Health, which he does not represent, as far as the HSE is concerned, there were no understandings on the side, no nod-and-wink arrangements or informal sanctioning of any of these breaches?
- Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 - Health
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (19 Dec 2013) Mary Lou McDonald: Where is that conclusion?
- Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 - Health
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (19 Dec 2013) Mary Lou McDonald: Perhaps we could finish with this point first. I am sorry to cut across Ms. Spillane.
- Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 - Health
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (19 Dec 2013) Mary Lou McDonald: Okay. That is the audit report.
- Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 - Health
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (19 Dec 2013) Mary Lou McDonald: Mr. O'Brien's position is that whatever informal conversations or sanctions that may have come for these breaches through the Department of Health on whatever date, at no stage did the HSE informally sanction local arrangements and breaches of this type.
- Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 - Health
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (19 Dec 2013) Mary Lou McDonald: Okay, not to his knowledge. I now wish to turn our attention to correspondence given to us during the break. The correspondence is between Mr. David Walsh, Regional Director of Performance and Integration in the HSE, Dublin-Mid-Leinster, who is based in County Kildare, and Mr. Nicholas C. Jermyn, group chief executive of St. Vincent's Healthcare Group Limited. The correspondence is in...
- Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 - Health
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (19 Dec 2013) Mary Lou McDonald: Precisely.
- Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 - Health
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (19 Dec 2013) Mary Lou McDonald: Am I correct in stating that this dates from 27 September 2013?
- Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 - Health
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (19 Dec 2013) Mary Lou McDonald: Okay. However, the position prior to that was not as crystal clear as that?
- Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 - Health
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (19 Dec 2013) Mary Lou McDonald: It is clearly their view that it was not and it is also absolutely clear that these people have gone to the trouble - unsurprisingly - to take legal advice on the matter concerned. May I again put the question. I am presuming that the HSE through your office or the office of the other Mr. O'Brien, equally have legal advice on this issue?
- Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 - Health
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (19 Dec 2013) Mary Lou McDonald: That is fair enough. I presume the HSE and Mr. O'Brien, if he is the appropriate person in the HSE, given the current controversy with St. Vincent's, and bearing in mind their previous letters of 29 October and 19 November 2013, this did not happen overnight, telling him where to go, that given the service level agreement, given the fact that these people have "lawyered up" on the issue,...
- Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 - Health
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (19 Dec 2013) Mary Lou McDonald: I appreciate that but can Dr. McLoughlin understand the concern that I have, namely, that collectively the system has singularly failed to resolve this matter. The evidence of that is that we are sitting in this committee room again dealing with these issues. The reality is, and the witnesses have conceded the point, that whatever about what was said in September 2013, prior to that date...