Results 18,261-18,280 of 34,942 for speaker:Seán Fleming
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (16 Nov 2017)
Seán Fleming: We are joined by the Comptroller and Auditor General, Mr. Seamus McCarthy, as a permanent witness to the committee, and he is accompanied today by Ms Maureen Mulligan, the deputy director of audit. No apologies have been received. The first item on the agenda is the minutes of our meeting on 8 November, the private meeting last week. Are they agreed? Agreed. The minutes of the meeting...
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (16 Nov 2017)
Seán Fleming: I understand everything the Deputy is saying. He correctly said that auditing RTÉ is specifically excluded from the Comptroller and Auditor General's remit. In a way, it might not be directly under our remit but as we have clearly established, over 50% of RTÉ's funding comes directly through the Department from licence fees. RTÉ is in an unusual situation. It leads to the...
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (16 Nov 2017)
Seán Fleming: I am not disagreeing with anything the Deputy has said.
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (16 Nov 2017)
Seán Fleming: I have been considering this matter since the last meeting. I have submitted a series of parliamentary questions relating to RTÉ's funding, the public service obligation, its standing as a commercial semi-State entity on the State balance sheet and so on. What concerned me most of all last week was that when we asked the Secretary General about the service level agreement, he did not...
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (16 Nov 2017)
Seán Fleming: I think we are agreed that RTÉ will be invited to address this.
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (16 Nov 2017)
Seán Fleming: We will draft a letter of invitation and specifically refer to there being no oversight agreement in place to satisfy the committee. We will address correspondence after Deputy MacSharry raises a matter.
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (16 Nov 2017)
Seán Fleming: I will ask the Comptroller and Auditor General, not necessarily in time for next week, to write a note on how fixed assets are recorded in the different groups of organisations, whether they are appropriation accounts, semi-state bodies or different bodies. Most of them say that assets are recorded at historical costs, notwithstanding the revaluation of certain fixed assets which are...
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (16 Nov 2017)
Seán Fleming: Yes, this concerns property and fixed assets.
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (16 Nov 2017)
Seán Fleming: We will move on to the rest of our correspondence. Document PAC32-R-893 A is a briefing document from SOLAS, so we note and publish that. Document PAC32-R-895 (i) A. is from the Secretary General of the Department of Education and Skills, providing a briefing document. His covering letter draws attention to the fact that there is an ongoing investigation in relation to the Kildare Wicklow...
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (16 Nov 2017)
Seán Fleming: I will read the item of correspondence, from the Secretary General.
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (16 Nov 2017)
Seán Fleming: Document PAC32-R-895 (i) A is the actual letter from the Secretary General to the committee, and he moves on then towards the last paragraphs. He attaches a briefing note, and then he writes:The Committee was previously notified by the Department about the commencement of the statutory investigation at Kildare Wicklow ETB. I have included the Terms of Reference for this investigation in the...
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (16 Nov 2017)
Seán Fleming: This is the process.
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (16 Nov 2017)
Seán Fleming: We will note the comment and proceed.
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (16 Nov 2017)
Seán Fleming: We will note the comment. The comment applies as much to him as it does to us. He might say something that could compromise the issue. We have to be cautious of everything. ETB is continuing as normal. Part of its work is to report to the Committee of Public Accounts.
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (16 Nov 2017)
Seán Fleming: There is no suggestion.
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (16 Nov 2017)
Seán Fleming: I will put one thing on the record. Tony O'Brien, the head of the HSE, said information uncovered by the Committee of Public Accounts on section 38 and section 39 agreements which came here assisted him in his work in bringing them into line. It is information that might not have come to him otherwise. There can be a plus here.
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (16 Nov 2017)
Seán Fleming: We will. We will carry on. I cannot force the witnesses to give a particular answer but we will ask the questions and we will take it from there. All of this and the investigation arose because of the issues highlighted by the C&AG during the conduct of his 2015 accounts. That was in the context of him providing accounts to ultimately report to us. This issue has come to light...
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (16 Nov 2017)
Seán Fleming: We should write to IDA Ireland. The agency must have some mechanism not only for one year but for the past five years of job announcements. The agency should be able to look back one year later to see the position. Normally, IDA Ireland announces jobs, for example, 300 jobs for the coming four years. Whether they materialise is another matter. Sometimes more materialise and sometimes...
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (16 Nov 2017)
Seán Fleming: I suggest that during the next week we might discuss with the secretariat what kind of letter we can put together from the committee to capture the point you are making. We will take it further. Correspondence number 882 from IDA Ireland states that ConnectIreland, a former contractor to IDA Ireland, is at present involved in a legal dispute with IDA Ireland relating to matters arising...
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (16 Nov 2017)
Seán Fleming: I see that.