Results 14,121-14,140 of 28,162 for speaker:Catherine Murphy

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (20 Jun 2019)

Catherine Murphy: We might ask NAMA if it ever did that.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (20 Jun 2019)

Catherine Murphy: Can we get a list setting out the sites that were rejected, if there were loans attached to them and the amount for which they were offered? It might well be that they were rejected because they were too expensive or in the wrong location. I am sure there must be a list that we could get reasonably easily.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (20 Jun 2019)

Catherine Murphy: Yes. It would be worthwhile to have such a list.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (20 Jun 2019)

Catherine Murphy: I will do that.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (20 Jun 2019)

Catherine Murphy: I would like to make two points. First, 12 months ago one would have thought that this allowance was established for the current President in his previous term but it had to pointed out that it dates back to 1938. It not having been administered in a public fashion did not afford the President, as a candidate, any protection in regard to it. It is the responsibility of the Houses not to...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (20 Jun 2019)

Catherine Murphy: Increasingly we come in her to discover that people think we are idiots. Do the officials in the Department of Finance think that we cannot join the recommendation we made with the answer given and see that contradiction?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (20 Jun 2019)

Catherine Murphy: It is downright insulting. It is not up to us to put forward Private Members' Bills. It is for the Department to include the recommendation as amending legislation and to do so to protect the President, whoever is in that office.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (20 Jun 2019)

Catherine Murphy: There was political argy-bargy here last year. The Chairman cannot say there was not. That may be the intention but it is not how it played out.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (20 Jun 2019)

Catherine Murphy: We could do with a departmental dictionary to explain what these terms mean.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (20 Jun 2019)

Catherine Murphy: I completely understand that we are making sure this is being properly applied. On a minor but important issue which I come across, flexibility is also required in some of these matters. I have dealt with youngsters who perhaps grew up in a foster arrangement or in care. When they are 18, they are in a very different position from somebody who is at home in a middle-class household....

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (20 Jun 2019)

Catherine Murphy: There is a high rate of success on appeal in the social welfare area, particularly in respect of disability payments. Essentially, the problem goes further back. There is a non-acceptance of medical evidence and the case then has to be reassessed. This is where a consultant says somebody has an illness that will continue for 12 months, and, in any case, the person will not qualify for,...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (20 Jun 2019)

Catherine Murphy: It then goes to appeal and other medics need to come in and oversee it. There is a rush to disallow some of these applications. The number of cases overturned on appeal shows us there is a problem in the original decision, despite there being a decent volume of evidence. I am not saying people should be paid allowances or benefits without providing the information but, in my office, I see...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (20 Jun 2019)

Catherine Murphy: What was that?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (20 Jun 2019)

Catherine Murphy: There is a second person here with the same opinion. The unemployment rate stands at 4.6%. We were told during the so-called boom years that 5% represented full employment. There is a value-for-money issue in respect of these contracts. There is more than one aspect that we need to consider.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (20 Jun 2019)

Catherine Murphy: Comprehensive replies such as this are welcome. In case it appears that this is all one-way criticism, I note that there is some very good stuff in it as well.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (20 Jun 2019)

Catherine Murphy: A topic we have discussed at recent meetings is the liquidation of the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, IBRC. In response to a priority question I asked in the Dáil yesterday, the Minister indicated that he is not going to set up a committee of inspection. He also said that the special liquidator has produced six voluntary reports, which are available on the Department's website....

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (20 Jun 2019)

Catherine Murphy: Three weeks in front of this committee.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (20 Jun 2019)

Catherine Murphy: The witnesses are very welcome. I will try to keep my questions short. I would appreciate succinct answers so that we can get through the several topics I wish to touch on. I wish to ask about the 72 sites throughout the State, which account for nearly 1,000 ha. One of those is the site at Backweston, with which I am very familiar. How does the Department control and manage that...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (20 Jun 2019)

Catherine Murphy: Will Mr. Gleeson provide the list to the committee? That might be useful. Is there any income from them?

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (20 Jun 2019)

Catherine Murphy: It would be useful for us to look at them in our own time. We got a list of Garda stations that were to be sold and we were quite amazed at some of the things in that list. It could be useful to have such a list. The Department had a number of claims and compensation and legal costs to pay. From my reading, the legal costs were substantially in excess of the amount paid out in the...