Results 11,721-11,740 of 26,589 for speaker:John McGuinness

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Animal Welfare (12 May 2015)

John McGuinness: 354. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to set out the number of complaints received by his Department relating to a pupply farm in County Carlow that are being investigated; the date each complaint was registered with his Department; the action taken on each complaint; if the complaints were forwarded to An Garda Síochána for investigation; if his Department...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (14 May 2015)

John McGuinness: Are the minutes of the meeting of 7 May 2015 agreed to? Agreed. There are no matters arising from the minutes. We will move to correspondence received since the meeting of 7 May 2015 from Accounting Officers. No. 3A.1 is correspondence, dated 5 May 2015, from Mr. Mark Griffin, Secretary General of the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources. It follows up on the...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (14 May 2015)

John McGuinness: Yes, that is the issue I am raising now.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (14 May 2015)

John McGuinness: We can ask for an update.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (14 May 2015)

John McGuinness: The HEA and the Department will be before us as part of our work schedule so we can deal with the matter later on. No. 3A.4 is correspondence, dated 11 May 2015, from the Health Service Executive and is a follow-up to our meeting of 23 April 2015. Members can see the information on screen. In regard to the matter raised by Deputy Costello, which I will deal with now rather than raise...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (14 May 2015)

John McGuinness: I have no difficulty with that, Deputy Deasy, save to say that what Deputy Costello has raised and what I have raised are almost separate from the particular issue of Waterford and Carlow ITs.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (14 May 2015)

John McGuinness: It is a broader issue of governance and reporting between the colleges and the Department, and, in turn, reporting between the Department, the HEA and the Committee of Public Accounts. It is obvious that we are not getting the information. It is clear to me that there is almost an attempt not to give us full information, and that is not acceptable.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (14 May 2015)

John McGuinness: It might be no harm if he was invited in and heard the exchange in respect of the issues that have already come before the Committee of Public Accounts and which have not been answered by the Department in any way, shape or form. This has to do with a serious lack of governance and control of taxpayers' money.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (14 May 2015)

John McGuinness: We were dealing with correspondence from the HSE which is a follow-up from the 23 April 2015 meeting. There are a number of other outstanding matters that the executive has to deal with but this correspondence answers some of the questions raised. In the context of the HSE reflecting on our meeting I suggest that we forward a transcript of that meeting to the Garda Commissioner in light of...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (14 May 2015)

John McGuinness: Maybe it is appropriate, then, given that proposition, to ask the clerk to do a short report on the basis of that meeting. The members can feed into that and it could be done for next week.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (14 May 2015)

John McGuinness: We can bring forward a draft report that we will present to the Minister in a short format. We can then discuss it and members can decide on recommendations, such as the one Deputy Deasy is putting forward. It is clear, in the context of all these reports, that there is a crisis in the management of the HSE. No political system or Minister could manage the HSE the way it is. It will...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (14 May 2015)

John McGuinness: These accounts are to be noted. The work programme is now on the screen. The clerk is providing us with a dossier on the information that was brought forward at a briefing session last week. That will be ready for us in the coming week. I presume that after it is made available to members we should make it available to the Department before our meeting with it. Is that on 16 June?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (14 May 2015)

John McGuinness: We should make it available to the Department so that it is fully aware of the content of the dossier. In the course of our discussions and briefing, it was said that a recording was available to members if they wished to see it. I ask the clerk to make that available to any member who wants to view it. A date can be arranged on which a number of members can view it, or it can be reviewed...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (14 May 2015)

John McGuinness: We will just flag that for the Department. Are there any other issues arising?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (14 May 2015)

John McGuinness: At present the funds of the Office of Wards of Court are not audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General, which is a question Deputy Ross raised at a previous meeting.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (14 May 2015)

John McGuinness: We have recommended in our draft report that the board should be examined in terms of the Courts Service. What was the Deputy's question?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (14 May 2015)

John McGuinness: I do not think it was taken up as an agreement to ask them in.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (14 May 2015)

John McGuinness: Was it?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (14 May 2015)

John McGuinness: Okay.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (14 May 2015)

John McGuinness: Yes. On the day it was mentioned, it was taken as a suggestion rather than a proposition.