Results 8,061-8,080 of 20,099 for speaker:Brian Stanley

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (4 Nov 2021)

Brian Stanley: The first item is the minutes of the meeting of 21 October 2021, which have been circulated to members. Do any members wish to raise an issue regarding the minutes? Are the minutes agreed? Agreed. As usual, the minutes will be published on the committee's website. The second item is accounts and financial statements. We have a fairly short list in front of us today. Four financial...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (4 Nov 2021)

Brian Stanley: I am open to clarification on this but I think that office would have been established in recent years. I do not know if any members of the committee have knowledge of that but my recollection is that this was created in the fairly recent past. However, we can add it to the list. Can we agree to note the accounts and statements?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (4 Nov 2021)

Brian Stanley: It has been there for a bit longer than I thought. I thought it was a more recent creation. Can we note the accounts and statements? Is that agreed? Agreed. As usual, the listing of accounts and financial statements will be published as part of the minutes. Regarding the delay involving the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, I would ask the clerk to send correspondence to it...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (4 Nov 2021)

Brian Stanley: We need to address this when the HSE appears before us because those section 38 hospitals receive in excess of €4 billion. The Comptroller and Auditor General is correct about the number of such hospitals. I just mentioned three specific ones. Information on procurement not being supplied by those section 38 institutions is very concerning. When the HSE appears before us, we need...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (4 Nov 2021)

Brian Stanley: No. 830 is correspondence from Ms Mary Lawlor, senior communications and public affairs manager with the National Asset Management Agency, dated 18 October. It is information requested by the committee arising from our meeting with NAMA on 30 September 2021. NAMA states: Approximately 2,450 units were deemed unsuitable or were not required by local authorities at the time. Such units...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (4 Nov 2021)

Brian Stanley: We will ask for the correspondence.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (4 Nov 2021)

Brian Stanley: Okay. We will come back to that in a moment. I call Deputy Munster.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (4 Nov 2021)

Brian Stanley: The letter referred to came from Revenue to RTÉ and I understand that came in correspondence from RTÉ. Do any other members wish to come in?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (4 Nov 2021)

Brian Stanley: We share that.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (4 Nov 2021)

Brian Stanley: I share Deputy Carthy's disappointment at the fact RTÉ is not here. I will let Mr. McCarthy in in a moment but on this GDPR issue, to my mind RTÉ is free to supply the information without naming the individuals. If you just ask for general information you are liable to get very little but we should look for firm information without naming the individuals involved and that should...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (4 Nov 2021)

Brian Stanley: Okay. I mention also the letter from the Secretary General of the Department of Social Protection, Mr. John McKeon, on 22 October. In the middle of it he says: I also understand that, separately, the Revenue Commissioners conducted an organisational tax audit of RTE (which incorporated PRSI between 2015 and 2018) resulting in approximately €953,000 being collected in respect of...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (4 Nov 2021)

Brian Stanley: On the letter from Revenue and the €1.223 million in respect of the conclusion about some individuals treated as contractors, there is a question over how many. As I recall, some 78 workers were found not to be employed properly as employees but as contractors, through the Eversheds process. There was some information in the media it related to 12 workers at the time. We should ask...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (4 Nov 2021)

Brian Stanley: The Department of Social Protection has said it will look back from when the individuals were first employed as contractors, which would deal with that.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (4 Nov 2021)

Brian Stanley: We will request that further information and the secretariat will follow up on that. We will note and publish the correspondence. No. 842 is correspondence from Ms Kerstin Mey, president, University of Limerick, UL, dated 21 October 2021, responding to the committee’s requests for a copy of the KPMG review regarding the acquisition of the property - known as the former Dunnes...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (4 Nov 2021)

Brian Stanley: One recent development in that regard is that we had a fairly full engagement with UL on these issues. In reply to a recent Dáil question, the Minister indicated that his Department was withholding some funding from UL because of a number of outstanding issues. It might be worthwhile if we wrote to the Secretary General of the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research,...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (4 Nov 2021)

Brian Stanley: I do not know.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (4 Nov 2021)

Brian Stanley: There is a grid included in that correspondence which shows that 19 former stations are being prepared for disposal. Consideration is being given to transferring nine of them to local authorities and some are being progressed as 20-year leases to local authorities or communities. A further four are being considered for community groups. It is good to see those being progressed at least. I...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (4 Nov 2021)

Brian Stanley: With regard to Miesian Plaza, the problem is we are basically depending on the OPW, which is caught in a situation where it is appealing for goodwill. A contract is a contract, and the mismeasurement on day one is, I presume, was stitched into that contract. It is a matter of appealing to the goodwill of the landlord, and I wish them luck in that regard. The meetings and exchanges between...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (4 Nov 2021)

Brian Stanley: It is a ten-year lease, as far as I recall.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (4 Nov 2021)

Brian Stanley: On the issue raised by Deputy Catherine Murphy, we will write to the OPW to get some information on it. Is that agreed? Agreed. As I recall, given I think this arose at a previous meeting, there was not a break clause in the contract. Twenty or 25 years is the length of time. We will follow up on that. We move now to category C, correspondence relating to private individuals and other...