Results 8,701-8,720 of 28,162 for speaker:Catherine Murphy
- Public Accounts Committee: Dublin Institute of Technology and Cork Institute of Technology: Financial Statements (22 Jun 2017)
Catherine Murphy: That was not the question I asked Professor Norton. I asked whether the controls would be as robust as if a new service was being contracted. I was specifically asking about the loss. That was the context of the question.
- Public Accounts Committee: Dublin Institute of Technology and Cork Institute of Technology: Financial Statements (22 Jun 2017)
Catherine Murphy: No, Professor Norton is not putting it into the future.
- Public Accounts Committee: Dublin Institute of Technology and Cork Institute of Technology: Financial Statements (22 Jun 2017)
Catherine Murphy: No. I accept that DIT has changed the regime since this occurred. We are examining why it occurred and whether it could have been avoided. That is the context.
- Public Accounts Committee: Dublin Institute of Technology and Cork Institute of Technology: Financial Statements (22 Jun 2017)
Catherine Murphy: I have the Official Report of the meeting but I am not going to waste my own time reading it out. I know the context the question was asked in. Were college services affected by the losses? For example, the library in Mountjoy Square was closed down. Was that a casualty of the losses?
- Public Accounts Committee: Dublin Institute of Technology and Cork Institute of Technology: Financial Statements (22 Jun 2017)
Catherine Murphy: The governing body has expressed concerns about procurement issues relating to a subsidiary of the college which provides computer services, which I think was called An Cheim. It has been wound up and replaced by a company called EduCampus Computer Services Limited. Are there potential conflicts of interest in respect of this company? If so, will the witnesses outline them and what has...
- Public Accounts Committee: Dublin Institute of Technology and Cork Institute of Technology: Financial Statements (22 Jun 2017)
Catherine Murphy: If we see the detail of this in the next few weeks, we can come back to it. I am conscious that time is short and there are other things I want to explore. Will the Chairman put my name down for further questions?
- Public Accounts Committee: Dublin Institute of Technology and Cork Institute of Technology: Financial Statements (22 Jun 2017)
Catherine Murphy: I thank the Chair. I had raised a Topical Issue in the Dáil and so had to leave. Going back to the procurement, it was a national tender with regard to the online library service. The provider was EPS and it did all the due diligence and organised the process. The Ernst & Young report stated that it could not find any documents indicating that there was a formal decision to...
- Public Accounts Committee: Dublin Institute of Technology and Cork Institute of Technology: Financial Statements (22 Jun 2017)
Catherine Murphy: I am just reading what the Ernst & Young report stated. It stated that it had not been provided with any documentation indicating that there was a formal decision to commit to the process. It precedes that by stating that a third-party organisation referred to as EPS ran the tender process on behalf of a number of universities and institutes of technology.
- Public Accounts Committee: Dublin Institute of Technology and Cork Institute of Technology: Financial Statements (22 Jun 2017)
Catherine Murphy: I can understand that when many more are involved, better value can be had and so on. EPS did the work, looked at the background of it, ran the tendering process and did the due diligence on the various people who put in tenders. It was a three-year contract, spanning 2012, 2013 and 2014. Is that right?
- Public Accounts Committee: Dublin Institute of Technology and Cork Institute of Technology: Financial Statements (22 Jun 2017)
Catherine Murphy: EPS would have had the knowledge of what the due diligence was. The witness did not have it.
- Public Accounts Committee: Dublin Institute of Technology and Cork Institute of Technology: Financial Statements (22 Jun 2017)
Catherine Murphy: What would the witness have used in subsequent years to evaluate the company or to do due diligence on the company?
- Public Accounts Committee: Dublin Institute of Technology and Cork Institute of Technology: Financial Statements (22 Jun 2017)
Catherine Murphy: It was carried out by an outside organisation in 2012 and it was accepted that it was a three-year contract and that there was very limited oversight other than paying when the fee was due. It was due in advance.
- Public Accounts Committee: Dublin Institute of Technology and Cork Institute of Technology: Financial Statements (22 Jun 2017)
Catherine Murphy: Collaborating in that way has negatives as well as positives. Were lessons learned by the HEA or DIT on that particular aspect?
- Public Accounts Committee: Dublin Institute of Technology and Cork Institute of Technology: Financial Statements (22 Jun 2017)
Catherine Murphy: It does not just relate to the library but also to the process.
- Public Accounts Committee: Dublin Institute of Technology and Cork Institute of Technology: Financial Statements (22 Jun 2017)
Catherine Murphy: That is not really the point I was making. The point is that EPS did all the work of evaluating the tenders and the companies. The witness did not then have sight of that and took it as a three-year contract. The work had already been done, and there is increased exposure by doing things in that particular way.
- Public Accounts Committee: Dublin Institute of Technology and Cork Institute of Technology: Financial Statements (22 Jun 2017)
Catherine Murphy: I want to move to something else entirely, which is the issue of a building near Hammond's Corner in Dublin 7 that I understand has been purchased by DIT. Is that the case? I can name the building if necessary.
- Public Accounts Committee: Dublin Institute of Technology and Cork Institute of Technology: Financial Statements (22 Jun 2017)
Catherine Murphy: Has there been a robust inspection of that building? Has it been done or will it be done in advance of any conclusion?
- Public Accounts Committee: Dublin Institute of Technology and Cork Institute of Technology: Financial Statements (22 Jun 2017)
Catherine Murphy: I will not press it any further if it is not concluded. I would make the point that I had concerns that that is going to happen, and the witness has just said that it will happen. The witness said in his opening statement that one area that received attention was the delivery of DIT programmes through third party providers. It was said that this is in keeping with national strategy and...
- Public Accounts Committee: Dublin Institute of Technology and Cork Institute of Technology: Financial Statements (22 Jun 2017)
Catherine Murphy: Is it disenfranchising or does it have the potential to disenfranchise staff that are there? Increasingly we are seeing, not just in DIT but across the university sector, that people are being employed on short-term contracts. We are hearing that people are being given one research hour for one contact hour, which hardly adds to the credentials of the university sector. While it might be...
- Public Accounts Committee: Dublin Institute of Technology and Cork Institute of Technology: Financial Statements (22 Jun 2017)
Catherine Murphy: Are there potential industrial relations issues in this?