Results 10,161-10,180 of 28,162 for speaker:Catherine Murphy

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Housing Adaptation Grant Data (8 Feb 2018)

Catherine Murphy: 287. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the funding provided to local authorities in 2017 for housing adaptation grants for persons with a disability, by local authority; the matching funding that was required; the funding unused by local authorities; if the 2018 grants have been notified to local authorities; if so, the amount by local authority; if not, when...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (8 Feb 2018)

Catherine Murphy: I thank Mr. McCarthy for following up on the matter but there are a number of issues arising. The purpose of shared services was to achieve a cost saving and greater efficiency but, based on what we are hearing, that is being only partially achieved. It is supposed to be a shared services system but when one drills down into it in some cases it is and in others it is not. Last week, when...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (8 Feb 2018)

Catherine Murphy: But the information would be fragmented.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (8 Feb 2018)

Catherine Murphy: The approach would not be a uniform approach such that there would be visibility from one organisation on that particular issue.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (8 Feb 2018)

Catherine Murphy: Has any analysis been undertaken of the likely saving if some of these organisations moved to shared services?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (8 Feb 2018)

Catherine Murphy: Would it be worth writing to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (8 Feb 2018)

Catherine Murphy: I accept that there will always be overpayments, time lags and all sorts of other issues. Humanity needs to be shown in all of this. It is very difficult not to highlight the difference between genuine mistakes being made and, for example, the bus shelter advertising campaign relating to the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection. There is a big contrast to be made.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (8 Feb 2018)

Catherine Murphy: I was going to make a very similar point. It has not just been picked out of thin air. The request came on foot of a chapter in the Comptroller and Auditor General's report and its purpose was to better understand the interaction. It means we have to assume things because we do not have available information that we can draw from through engagement with the companies. It means our...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (8 Feb 2018)

Catherine Murphy: I raised this last week or the week before because I do not think I have ever seen a situation where people have come out of a court having settled and talked about the payment securing the future of a child. There is a crossover between inadequate public services and the cases that are taken. It is almost a self-fulfilling prophecy when one has that kind of contingent liability. When one...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (8 Feb 2018)

Catherine Murphy: That correspondence is on foot of that being raised by an individual.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (8 Feb 2018)

Catherine Murphy: The number of greyhound stadiums, Tote Ireland and the horse racing bodies is noticeable. It jumps from the page. There are many small, or relatively small, amounts of money as well. What kind of capacity does that take up in the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (8 Feb 2018)

Catherine Murphy: We always expected that we would have to come back to the university sector and there is now far more reason to do so. There is a new independent report which I believe was carried out by Crowe Howarth, at which we need to look. We need to include the issue in the work programme. I had intended to address some of the issues raised by the whistleblowers about the Thorn report and with which...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (8 Feb 2018)

Catherine Murphy: At what deadline is the Comptroller and Auditor General likely to be looking in that regard? That is important if we are to include the issue in the work programme.

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 7 - Dormant Accounts Fund (8 Feb 2018)

Catherine Murphy: One of the things I noted, one to which Mr. Kevin McCarthy drew attention, is that statutory responsibility for the Dormant Accounts Fund was transferred to the Department when it was established. Since the fund was created, this function has been transferred a number of times. When the Department assumed statutory responsibility for the fund, what explanation was it given for the absence...

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 7 - Dormant Accounts Fund (8 Feb 2018)

Catherine Murphy: Is that a box-ticking type of approach to compliance? A statutory review means just that. A review of sorts is not a statutory review. Did the Department not insist on the Department from which the function was being transferred carrying out the review?

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 7 - Dormant Accounts Fund (8 Feb 2018)

Catherine Murphy: It is striking that most of the years in question - from 2012 to 2016 - were among the tightest the country had experienced money-wise. Some of the groups identified as disadvantaged would have been doubly disadvantaged by virtue of the significant cutbacks introduced in those years and the money from the Dormant Accounts Fund became all the more important as a consequence. I find it very...

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 7 - Dormant Accounts Fund (8 Feb 2018)

Catherine Murphy: There is some navel-gazing going on, given the timelines we are talking about here. I refer to one in particular, where a programme seems to have been replaced. The area-based childhood, ABC, programme was abandoned, and then a new programme was initiated. There is obviously a very significant underspend on that particular scheme. For example, matching funds were supposed to be...

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 7 - Dormant Accounts Fund (8 Feb 2018)

Catherine Murphy: I ask all of the witnesses to be very concise in their replies, because we have quite limited time. I would like to hear more on that particular programme from Mr. Rowley.

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 7 - Dormant Accounts Fund (8 Feb 2018)

Catherine Murphy: No money was lost from Atlantic Philanthropies' contribution, then?

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 7 - Dormant Accounts Fund (8 Feb 2018)

Catherine Murphy: I wish to raise the issue of Pobal. What is the cost of administration, compared to the funds for which Pobal is responsible? Perhaps a witness could describe that body's role to me, and outline the ratio of operating expenses to the amount Pobal administers?