Results 6,841-6,860 of 21,498 for speaker:Mary Lou McDonald

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 11 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances
Chapter 3 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 4 - Vote Accounting
Chapter 5 - Vote Budget Management (3 Apr 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: I apologise for having to leave the meeting for a while. For the record and for posterity, I think the record should reflect that our officials are eating Twirls or some other sugar rush substance.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 11 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances
Chapter 3 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 4 - Vote Accounting
Chapter 5 - Vote Budget Management (3 Apr 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: Let that also be noted. I will not delay the meeting. All of my questions revolve around the area of procurement and perhaps I should address them to Mr. Quinn, but I will let the Secretary General decide who should respond. On the Order of Business today, I raised the issue of the new directive on public procurement which was agreed approximately three months ago. I am aware the State...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 11 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances
Chapter 3 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 4 - Vote Accounting
Chapter 5 - Vote Budget Management (3 Apr 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: That is fine. If I am rehashing the questions that have already been asked, please tell me.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 11 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances
Chapter 3 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 4 - Vote Accounting
Chapter 5 - Vote Budget Management (3 Apr 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: I appreciate the limitations on what Mr. Quinn can say on the specifics of a particular tender, but I would like to speak on that issue of consortia coming together. There is a cross-party group of Deputies which has been active on this issue, of which Mr. Quinn is probably aware, and it has raised the following issue which I would like to put to him. Although a group is formed for the...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 11 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances
Chapter 3 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 4 - Vote Accounting
Chapter 5 - Vote Budget Management (3 Apr 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: Including what we would consider as micro businesses rather than small-----

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 11 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances
Chapter 3 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 4 - Vote Accounting
Chapter 5 - Vote Budget Management (3 Apr 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: What does Mr. Quinn define as-----

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 11 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances
Chapter 3 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 4 - Vote Accounting
Chapter 5 - Vote Budget Management (3 Apr 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: There is a big difference between an organisation of 300 in size and an organisation of ten employees.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 11 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances
Chapter 3 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 4 - Vote Accounting
Chapter 5 - Vote Budget Management (3 Apr 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: What I am trying to establish is whether Mr. Quinn is aware of the difference for micro businesses. I am not for a second setting aside the value of SMEs coming together to bid. That is entirely sensible and I wish to acknowledge the work done by InterTradeIreland, Enterprise Ireland and other agencies. That is not what I am getting at. Micro businesses wish to bid for business and they...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 11 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances
Chapter 3 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 4 - Vote Accounting
Chapter 5 - Vote Budget Management (3 Apr 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: That is the reaction to that. Am I right in saying the formation of a special purpose vehicle for tender is not allowable under the current system?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 11 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances
Chapter 3 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 4 - Vote Accounting
Chapter 5 - Vote Budget Management (3 Apr 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: I would appreciate if Mr. Quinn could get back to me on that. It has been a long meeting so I would like to raise two other things and make a suggestion if that is okay. There was a concern raised by some businesses, which know their onions, as they say, because this is the area in which they have been operating for a long time, in some cases for generations, about health and safety...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 11 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances
Chapter 3 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 4 - Vote Accounting
Chapter 5 - Vote Budget Management (3 Apr 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: It might not be a case of predatory pricing but that a tenderer might be of such a scale that it can absorb losses in one cycle, thereby logically seeing off smaller entities that go out of business, to put it crudely. When the procurement office considers an abnormally low price, it might also consider the scale of the organisation tendering and see that it is a multinational, which can...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 11 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances
Chapter 3 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 4 - Vote Accounting
Chapter 5 - Vote Budget Management (3 Apr 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: I know if the people in the Public Gallery were in a position to speak, they would contest much of that. This group of organisations, the Irish School Arts Supply Federation, ISASF, directly employs 1,600 people. It estimates it would cost the IDA approximately €21 million to find replacement jobs for that number of people. Outside of price and quality, which are legitimate...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 11 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances
Chapter 3 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 4 - Vote Accounting
Chapter 5 - Vote Budget Management (3 Apr 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: Would it not be a terrible irony if as part of the strategy to save 2.5% of moneys, some or all of those 1,600 jobs in long-standing, micro enterprises were lost? Would it not be ironic if the cost to the Exchequer that would represent by way of social welfare subvention, loss of tax revenue and PRSI etc. was not part of the policy picture? Mr. Quinn's response did not reassure me that the...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 11 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances
Chapter 3 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 4 - Vote Accounting
Chapter 5 - Vote Budget Management (3 Apr 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: These organisations directly employ 1,600 people. That is a lot of jobs. Does the Chairman think it would be in order for us to circulate the submission from the ISASF to Mr. Quinn and Mr. Watt on behalf of the committee and ask them to study it? I know they have agreed to a meeting. Much of what Mr. Quinn has said is contested but I am conscious of the hour. Can the Chairman confirm the...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 11 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances
Chapter 3 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 4 - Vote Accounting
Chapter 5 - Vote Budget Management (3 Apr 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: It is a submission from the Irish School Arts Supply Federation to the Committee of Public Accounts.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 11 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances
Chapter 3 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 4 - Vote Accounting
Chapter 5 - Vote Budget Management (3 Apr 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: Thank you, Chairman.

Written Answers — Department of Health: Home Help Service Provision (8 Apr 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: 587. To ask the Minister for Health when a decision for home help for a person (details supplied) in County Dublin will be made; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16097/14]

Public Accounts Committee: Payments to Section 39 Companies: (Resumed) Rehab Group (10 Apr 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: The gentleman present are all welcome and I thank them for their attendance. While it has been stated previously, I reiterate the members' disappointment that neither Mr. Flannery nor Ms Kerins is joining this meeting. The committee very much hopes this can be put to rights and members will see them sometime soon. I will stick with the coffins if I may and with the permission of Mr. Kerr,...

Public Accounts Committee: Payments to Section 39 Companies: (Resumed) Rehab Group (10 Apr 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: Can I get clarification from someone who was on the board that Complete Eco Solutions was the company in question with which the discussions had been had and in respect of which Ms Kerins made her disclosure on 29 November 2009?

Public Accounts Committee: Payments to Section 39 Companies: (Resumed) Rehab Group (10 Apr 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: All right. There is a difficulty with that because Complete Eco Solutions was not formed as a company until 7 December 2009. If I could have the gentlemen's attention, the actual sequence is that the matter was raised at the board, there was a discussion with persons unspecified here, Ms Kerins made the revelation of a family interest, and the company, according to public records, was...