Results 901-920 of 10,862 for speaker:Matt Carthy

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (21 Oct 2020)

Matt Carthy: The Taoiseach may be aware that in many counties, predominantly rural ones, school transport remains a very vexed issue. There are particular issues with trying to secure concessionary bus passes with children. There are numerous families - I am dealing with over a dozen of them - whose children are eligible for transport but cannot get on the school bus. In many instances, this is because...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (21 Oct 2020)

Matt Carthy: I am referring to the reduced capacity on school buses of 50%, or perhaps even lower. These private operators are driving full school buses. The most important issue is getting children to school. I accept that and I also accept that we need to be flexible in that regard. Will the Taoiseach and the Minister for Education and Skills ensure every child who is eligible for school transport...

Commission of Investigation (Mother and Baby Homes and certain related Matters) Records, and another Matter, Bill 2020 [Seanad]: Second Stage (Resumed) (21 Oct 2020)

Matt Carthy: "After being freed from Bessborough, my life was made up of continual suicide attempts ... I could not accept how my baby had been allowed to die without any medical care." Those are the words of a survivor. Many Irish women were deeply, physically and mentally hurt by the abuse suffered in the mother and baby homes. It is hard to believe that such injustice could ever have been so...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Community Employment Schemes (21 Oct 2020)

Matt Carthy: 154. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the provisions in place for community employment scheme employees to work from home during level 3 and 4 restrictions; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [31870/20]

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
2019 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 26 - Department of Education and Skills (21 Oct 2020)

Matt Carthy: I welcome our guests. I wish to put on the record our thanks to the Department of Education and Skills. It has had an incredibly difficult year, and everybody recognises that. Nobody could have imagined the challenges it would face. Everything needs to be accepted in that context, and I wish to clarify that that is accepted by the committee. To call a spade a spade, the witnesses know...

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
2019 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 26 - Department of Education and Skills (21 Oct 2020)

Matt Carthy: It is.

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
2019 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 26 - Department of Education and Skills (21 Oct 2020)

Matt Carthy: I am asking in particular about the safeguards.

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
2019 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 26 - Department of Education and Skills (21 Oct 2020)

Matt Carthy: Mr. Ó Foghlú should it explain the issue to me in that case. That would be the easiest approach.

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
2019 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 26 - Department of Education and Skills (21 Oct 2020)

Matt Carthy: In that case, Mr. Ó Foghlú will not only have to correct the record of this committee but that of every publication and media outlet in the country.

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
2019 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 26 - Department of Education and Skills (21 Oct 2020)

Matt Carthy: On that matter and to give a bit of context-----

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
2019 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 26 - Department of Education and Skills (21 Oct 2020)

Matt Carthy: I am also allowed to act as if I have not been living on another planet for the past six months. According to an article on the journal.ie, "As part of contingency planning for the Leaving Certificate 2020, the State Examinations Commission hired Polymetrika to develop the code used to calculate the grades." Previous to that, Polymetrika "had been engaged in an advisory capacity" to a...

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
2019 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 26 - Department of Education and Skills (21 Oct 2020)

Matt Carthy: I was basing my assumption on the supposition that what was reported and had not been challenged by the Department, to my knowledge, was true, and I asked if this practice had taken place in previous years. The broader question was on what safeguards are in place with respect to urgent procurement processes when they are required. Nobody is doubting that there are times when urgent...

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
2019 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 26 - Department of Education and Skills (21 Oct 2020)

Matt Carthy: I will ask a short question in a historical context. On contracts which are awarded under urgent and non-competitive procedures, is there a standard mechanism in place within the Department that ensures that if that contract ends up being a cost to either the Department or the wider State, not only is there a clawback of the funding but there is also a mechanism for potential compensation to...

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
2019 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 26 - Department of Education and Skills (21 Oct 2020)

Matt Carthy: Can we get a note on that perhaps?

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
2019 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 26 - Department of Education and Skills (21 Oct 2020)

Matt Carthy: I will touch on something again where people might have been overly defensive. I am trying to get a sense of the protections in place when non-competitive procurement needs to take place. No one knows better than the Department of Education and Skills how to have a stringent procurement process. I was a member of ETB boards of management for several years and the procurement rules that the...

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
2019 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 26 - Department of Education and Skills (21 Oct 2020)

Matt Carthy: Let us dance around the eggshells that have been put in front of us. If a company is being employed under a non-competitive process to carry out work that involves software development, what mechanism is put in place to assess effectively the capacity of that company to deliver what is being asked of it?

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
2019 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 26 - Department of Education and Skills (21 Oct 2020)

Matt Carthy: What mechanism was in place to ensure that the person who stated he or she had that unique set of skills actually had them? How does the Department determine whether someone is up to the job?

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
2019 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 26 - Department of Education and Skills (21 Oct 2020)

Matt Carthy: The Department had never worked with him.

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
2019 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 26 - Department of Education and Skills (21 Oct 2020)

Matt Carthy: His work has changed how the next leaving certificate be done as well.

Public Accounts Committee: 2019 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 11 - Office of Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
Vote 12 – Superannuation and Retired Allowances
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Accounting for Capital Assets
Chapter 5 - Accounting for Allied Services (22 Oct 2020)

Matt Carthy: I thank the witnesses, their teams, the staff in the Department and in the wider civil and public service for the huge amount of work undertaken during the pandemic, in particular. Whatever critiques we may have of our public service, by and large, public servants have stood up to the plate in no uncertain terms during the last seven months in very challenging times. My question concerns...