Results 7,401-7,420 of 20,099 for speaker:Brian Stanley

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 8 - Control of Humanitarian Assistance Funding
2019 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade (24 Jun 2021)

Brian Stanley: I appreciate that. We move now to a second round of questions. The first questioner is Deputy Catherine Murphy. I ask that other members who wish to contribute so indicate by raising a hand signal.

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 8 - Control of Humanitarian Assistance Funding
2019 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade (24 Jun 2021)

Brian Stanley: I have one or two other questions. There is a secretariat in Belfast and it came from the Anglo-Irish Agreement in 1983. What is the level of staffing that the State has in Belfast for that secretariat? What other staff are there and where are they in the North?

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 8 - Control of Humanitarian Assistance Funding
2019 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade (24 Jun 2021)

Brian Stanley: The administration of the North-South Ministerial Council is in Armagh. Are there half a dozen staff involved?

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 8 - Control of Humanitarian Assistance Funding
2019 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade (24 Jun 2021)

Brian Stanley: Are the officials from the Department of Justice included in the nine staff in Belfast?

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 8 - Control of Humanitarian Assistance Funding
2019 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade (24 Jun 2021)

Brian Stanley: What is the role of the Department of Justice with that office in Belfast?

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 8 - Control of Humanitarian Assistance Funding
2019 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade (24 Jun 2021)

Brian Stanley: I am just looking for an idea.

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 8 - Control of Humanitarian Assistance Funding
2019 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade (24 Jun 2021)

Brian Stanley: In countries where we do not have an embassy we have consular services. I have come to realise in dealings with the Department over the past few years that there is a representative. In how many countries do we have such consular representation where we do not have an embassy? How does that operate? Is it a part-time role and would the person be funded by a stipend, for example? What way...

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 8 - Control of Humanitarian Assistance Funding
2019 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade (24 Jun 2021)

Brian Stanley: They receive a stipend of €1,000 or €2,000 per year.

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 8 - Control of Humanitarian Assistance Funding
2019 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade (24 Jun 2021)

Brian Stanley: I welcome that. I had direction experience of that service, on behalf of a constituent, in recent years. One of these honorary consuls, in a place where there is no embassy, dealt with the matter in a very satisfactory way. I often wondered how that is managed. They should receive some recognition of their work. I had direct experience of one of the consuls providing very valuable...

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 8 - Control of Humanitarian Assistance Funding
2019 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade (24 Jun 2021)

Brian Stanley: Okay. Thank you for the reply. I thank the witnesses for joining us today, the work involved in preparing for the meeting and the very detailed information supplied. I thank the Comptroller and Auditor General and his staff, as always, for attending and assisting the committee today. I also thank the clerk and secretariat. Is it agreed that we note and publish any opening statements...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (22 Jun 2021)

Brian Stanley: Apologies have been received from Deputy Catherine Murphy. We are joined remotely by the Comptroller and Auditor General, Mr. Seamus McCarthy, as a permanent witness. I welcome everyone online to the meeting. Due to the current situation with Covid-19 only the clerk, the support staff and I are in the committee room. Members are attending remotely from within the precincts of Leinster...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (22 Jun 2021)

Brian Stanley: Mr. McCarthy mentioned with regard to Údarás na Gaeltachta that the matter he is concerned about relates to an industrial property. Where was the industrial property? The estimated cost for refurbishment, if I heard Mr. McCarthy correctly, was €1.2 million but subsequently it cost in the region of €3 million. Will Mr. McCarthy give us a little bit more detail about this?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (22 Jun 2021)

Brian Stanley: As normal, we will write to Dundalk Institute of Technology regarding the late review of the internal control which, as the Comptroller and Auditor General outlined, should have happened within a three-month period. I will ask the clerk to write to Dundalk Institute of Technology regarding this. Are the accounting statements agreed? Agreed. They will be published as part of the minutes....

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (22 Jun 2021)

Brian Stanley: I will ask the Comptroller and Auditor General to come in on this. We have addressed this issue of the absence of a centralised procurement model within the HSE a number of times. It is something that has been promised, and deadlines have been missed or, more correctly, targets to have it in place have been pushed out further and further.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (22 Jun 2021)

Brian Stanley: Thank you for that, Mr. McCarthy. I take it that Beaumont and St. James's are the two hospitals the Comptroller and Auditor General audits. The Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, St. Vincent's University Hospital and Tallaght Hospital are voluntary hospitals, as I understand it.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (22 Jun 2021)

Brian Stanley: While we are looking at Beaumont Hospital, there was a public tendering procedure conducted in 43 cases in Beaumont Hospital in 2020, whereas in Tallaght Hospital, which is quite a large hospital, the figure is only six. Deputy Carthy, could you restate your proposal? That we write to-----

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (22 Jun 2021)

Brian Stanley: Is that agreed? Mr. McCarthy signalled to come back in again.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (22 Jun 2021)

Brian Stanley: We will ask the clerk to issue that correspondence to the HSE and we will take the matter from there. Is that agreed? Agreed. No. 621B is from Ms Vivienne Flood, head of public affairs, RTÉ, dated 28 May 2021, providing information requested by the committee arising from the Committee of Public Accounts meeting of 27 April 2021. At our meeting of 15 June we agreed to note and...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (22 Jun 2021)

Brian Stanley: We will check that and come back to the Deputy on it. Is that okay?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (22 Jun 2021)

Brian Stanley: We have to check it on the system. Do you have any other questions or issues you wish to raise?