Results 6,801-6,820 of 26,037 for speaker:Kieran O'Donnell
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: General Scheme of European Stability Mechanism (Amendment) Bill 2014: Discussion (24 Sep 2014)
Kieran O'Donnell: Have the procedures as such in that area still to be set down?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: General Scheme of European Stability Mechanism (Amendment) Bill 2014: Discussion (24 Sep 2014)
Kieran O'Donnell: There is a reason for that.
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (25 Sep 2014)
Kieran O'Donnell: As this is mainly a social welfare issue, if officials of the Department of Social Protection are to come before the committee, they must provide information on certain matters. The Department must inform us of how many fraud investigators it has on its books who are carrying out inspections, particularly in the construction sector. Fraud within the social welfare system is something...
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (25 Sep 2014)
Kieran O'Donnell: I thank the clerk for the work done on the reports. On the medical card issue, anomalies were referred to. It is touched upon in the report but perhaps there should be a few recommendations. There is an inconsistency in the way in which the over-70s are dealt with for discretionary cards compared with the under-70s. A person over 70 who applies is either granted or not granted a card...
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (25 Sep 2014)
Kieran O'Donnell: Am I correct in saying that by sheer twist of fate, the land ended up going into NAMA?
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (25 Sep 2014)
Kieran O'Donnell: That was a pure twist of fate.
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (25 Sep 2014)
Kieran O'Donnell: If NAMA had not been there at the time, the State could have been caught.
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (25 Sep 2014)
Kieran O'Donnell: Was there any lead authority on this project at the time?
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (25 Sep 2014)
Kieran O'Donnell: If my memory is correct, no one was sitting on the ball in midfield. There were a lot of corner forwards, but very few playing in midfield. Would that be a fair analysis?
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (25 Sep 2014)
Kieran O'Donnell: I am always available, for Limerick. I think Brian Cody has more than enough. Am I correct that the two things to come out of this were, first, the State had a lucky break in terms of NAMA, which is an unusual comment to make, but that is the case, and, second, there was no proper lead authority structure in place in terms of proper due diligence being done on this contract at the time?
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (25 Sep 2014)
Kieran O'Donnell: If my memory serves me right, the lack of a lead authority at the time resulted in no one directing the play.
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (25 Sep 2014)
Kieran O'Donnell: We might include that in the recommendations.
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (25 Sep 2014)
Kieran O'Donnell: I suppose there is another issue also. From a cashflow viewpoint, the €31 million the State had to give to NAMA could have been used to address many other on-the-ground issues, now rather than in the future.
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (25 Sep 2014)
Kieran O'Donnell: We keep raising this at meetings of the Committee of Public Accounts. When Departments are dealing with money, they must look on it as if it were their money because it is taxpayers’ money, or money paid by the taxpayer. This needs to be clearly fixed in the mindset of the public sector in terms of how it operates. It is operating with taxpayers’ money. I often find this...
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (25 Sep 2014)
Kieran O'Donnell: Obviously in a constructive way.
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (25 Sep 2014)
Kieran O'Donnell: With multiple Departments involved.
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (25 Sep 2014)
Kieran O'Donnell: From whose budget did the compensation of €32 million come?
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (25 Sep 2014)
Kieran O'Donnell: Is it the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government?
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (25 Sep 2014)
Kieran O'Donnell: Did they get any tangible assets for that?
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (25 Sep 2014)
Kieran O'Donnell: For argument's sake, had the arrangement gone through as normal in a reasonable period, what would have been the cost to the State?