Results 10,641-10,660 of 32,978 for speaker:Catherine Connolly

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 14 - Control of Ireland's Bilateral Assistance Programme
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade (21 Jun 2018)

Catherine Connolly: Yes.

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 14 - Control of Ireland's Bilateral Assistance Programme
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade (21 Jun 2018)

Catherine Connolly: How is that becoming available now?

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 14 - Control of Ireland's Bilateral Assistance Programme
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade (21 Jun 2018)

Catherine Connolly: The Chairman is looking at me but I will stop. I will come back continually to the ongoing renting of premises with no value for money being obtained. It is every public body in Ireland and abroad and it is contributing to rents going off the Richter scale, not to mention the cost. It should be looked at.

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 14 - Control of Ireland's Bilateral Assistance Programme
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade (21 Jun 2018)

Catherine Connolly: I welcome that and I realise it is complex but we should not go down the road of renting without thinking. Only recently we had the president of a university before the committee. He was in accommodation for €3,000 per month on taxpayers' money. That is simply an example. Whether that is good value for money is a matter for us to examine. Anyway, that mentality has persisted in...

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 14 - Control of Ireland's Bilateral Assistance Programme
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade (21 Jun 2018)

Catherine Connolly: Is there anything else Mr. Burgess can say about it? What quantity of money is involved?

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 14 - Control of Ireland's Bilateral Assistance Programme
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade (21 Jun 2018)

Catherine Connolly: We will leave the Garda or whatever the relevant police force is to that job, but the matter of governance is relevant for the Department. Did the Department discover this? What has the Department learned from it? Were governance procedures working to enable the Department to discover it?

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 14 - Control of Ireland's Bilateral Assistance Programme
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade (21 Jun 2018)

Catherine Connolly: I am unsure where to direct a question on emergency consular assistance. Who deals with distressed citizens abroad and helping people in emergencies and so on?

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 14 - Control of Ireland's Bilateral Assistance Programme
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade (21 Jun 2018)

Catherine Connolly: The figure has gone up. Obviously, the number of people seeking emergency assistance has gone up. Is that correct?

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 14 - Control of Ireland's Bilateral Assistance Programme
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade (21 Jun 2018)

Catherine Connolly: Can Mr. Burgess put a little context on that, please?

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 14 - Control of Ireland's Bilateral Assistance Programme
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade (21 Jun 2018)

Catherine Connolly: Does Mr. Burgess have a figure for the number of people who sought emergency consular assistance last year?

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 14 - Control of Ireland's Bilateral Assistance Programme
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade (21 Jun 2018)

Catherine Connolly: We might come back to the reasons that is.

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 14 - Control of Ireland's Bilateral Assistance Programme
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade (21 Jun 2018)

Catherine Connolly: What type of figures are we looking at?

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 14 - Control of Ireland's Bilateral Assistance Programme
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade (21 Jun 2018)

Catherine Connolly: Those seeking emergency assistance.

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 14 - Control of Ireland's Bilateral Assistance Programme
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade (21 Jun 2018)

Catherine Connolly: Okay, we will get them. In relation to those, there is a range of reasons, I would imagine, from losing a passport to unfortunately being caught in a terrorist attack. How does the Department operate recovery of expenses or does it? Does the Department give this service free of charge?

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 14 - Control of Ireland's Bilateral Assistance Programme
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade (21 Jun 2018)

Catherine Connolly: What model has the Department for recovering the costs, for instance, in the simple example of losing one's passport? Does the Department charge that person for the cost? How does it work with somebody who is injured?

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 14 - Control of Ireland's Bilateral Assistance Programme
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade (21 Jun 2018)

Catherine Connolly: Is there a set list?

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 14 - Control of Ireland's Bilateral Assistance Programme
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade (21 Jun 2018)

Catherine Connolly: I have one final practical question on fraud. The Department does not publish details. I think it is in the process of changing that policy.

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 14 - Control of Ireland's Bilateral Assistance Programme
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade (21 Jun 2018)

Catherine Connolly: Will that be the first time?

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 14 - Control of Ireland's Bilateral Assistance Programme
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade (21 Jun 2018)

Catherine Connolly: Will that be for the 2017 accounts?

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 14 - Control of Ireland's Bilateral Assistance Programme
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade (21 Jun 2018)

Catherine Connolly: I have a number of questions in relation to the EU. I am reading an Orwellian document here on the long-term European Defence Fund and the European Defence Agency and money going to that from Ireland. Is there any way that is going through the Department in the form of aid?