Results 9,241-9,260 of 32,920 for speaker:Catherine Connolly

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 15 - Galway Art House Cinema
Vote 33 - Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs (29 Mar 2018)

Catherine Connolly: Let me be clear. According to a note from the Comptroller and Auditor General, the auditor of Solas resigned in October 2016 due to concerns regarding corporate governance, and in the following year, 2017, Solas went into liquidation, although I was gone at that point. Does Ms Licken know now why the auditor left?

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 15 - Galway Art House Cinema
Vote 33 - Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs (29 Mar 2018)

Catherine Connolly: We will stick with this for a minute. The witness will excuse me if I am a bit direct. I am impressed by Ms Licken's statement and her open declaration that the Department will learn from mistakes. I realise the witness has inherited this issue, and she has taken the two very serious recommendations on board. What has the Department learned from the auditor leaving? Has anybody followed...

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 15 - Galway Art House Cinema
Vote 33 - Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs (29 Mar 2018)

Catherine Connolly: No. The auditor finally left. Has anybody in Ms Licken's Department followed up on that in order to learn from it, or to find out about the nature of his concerns?

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 15 - Galway Art House Cinema
Vote 33 - Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs (29 Mar 2018)

Catherine Connolly: Can witness clarify the investigation by the Charities Regulator?

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 15 - Galway Art House Cinema
Vote 33 - Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs (29 Mar 2018)

Catherine Connolly: When will the Charities Regulator conclude that? Has the Department been in contact with it?

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 15 - Galway Art House Cinema
Vote 33 - Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs (29 Mar 2018)

Catherine Connolly: When will that report be ready?

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 15 - Galway Art House Cinema
Vote 33 - Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs (29 Mar 2018)

Catherine Connolly: Does the witness know what started the Charities Regulator's investigation?

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 15 - Galway Art House Cinema
Vote 33 - Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs (29 Mar 2018)

Catherine Connolly: I think one of the reasons for the investigation was that this was supposed to be a public project, but what it became was very much a private project. The Department has not carried out any investigation into why the auditor left, is that correct? It is relying on the Charities Regulator?

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 15 - Galway Art House Cinema
Vote 33 - Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs (29 Mar 2018)

Catherine Connolly: Let us go back over this and the overview from the Department. Councillors meet every two weeks. These are not quick meetings as there are lots of items on the agenda. They repeatedly asked for presentations from Solas. The report before us lays the responsibility, in so far as it comes under the Comptroller and Auditor General's determination, on Ms Licken's Department. I believe there...

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 15 - Galway Art House Cinema
Vote 33 - Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs (29 Mar 2018)

Catherine Connolly: Was the Department aware of the trading losses that Solas had between 2011 and 2014? This project was approved back in 2006 or 2007 by an independent assessment, was it not? There was a former county manager on the assessment board, as well as a former architect and somebody from the Arts Council. They assessed this project and gave it the thumbs up. Councillors and local management had...

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 15 - Galway Art House Cinema
Vote 33 - Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs (29 Mar 2018)

Catherine Connolly: The Department does not seem to have been aware of the site investigations either.

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 15 - Galway Art House Cinema
Vote 33 - Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs (29 Mar 2018)

Catherine Connolly: Of which ones was the Department aware?

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 15 - Galway Art House Cinema
Vote 33 - Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs (29 Mar 2018)

Catherine Connolly: What was carried out?

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 15 - Galway Art House Cinema
Vote 33 - Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs (29 Mar 2018)

Catherine Connolly: When did that happen?

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 15 - Galway Art House Cinema
Vote 33 - Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs (29 Mar 2018)

Catherine Connolly: What did the Department's survey find?

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 15 - Galway Art House Cinema
Vote 33 - Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs (29 Mar 2018)

Catherine Connolly: Solas has gone into liquidation, and Element Pictures, which is a private entity, has taken over. Element Pictures runs the Lighthouse Cinema in Dublin. It has a lease on it for 30 years, at which point it should revert to the city council. The city council has a charge on the property.

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 15 - Galway Art House Cinema
Vote 33 - Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs (29 Mar 2018)

Catherine Connolly: If we go back to the original business case, have the witnesses read the Comptroller and Auditor General's chapter?

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 15 - Galway Art House Cinema
Vote 33 - Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs (29 Mar 2018)

Catherine Connolly: He has raised many questions about that, going back to the very basic business case of how many would attend, the sensitivities around that and doing a sensitivity analysis about how many would actually attend. It was supposed to be making money after a few years. Have the witnesses looked at all that?

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 15 - Galway Art House Cinema
Vote 33 - Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs (29 Mar 2018)

Catherine Connolly: Will the witnesses talk me through what they have learned from it and how it happened?

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 15 - Galway Art House Cinema
Vote 33 - Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs (29 Mar 2018)

Catherine Connolly: No, in terms of what happened. This went on from 2006 to 2018. The site is still not fully open in 2018. Serious questions have been raised by the Comptroller and Auditor General. He makes two recommendations and he highlights a number of "inadequacies", let us put it like that, in moderate language. Terms like "Rocky Horror Picture Show" were used in my time on the council. Will the...