Results 1,841-1,860 of 7,126 for speaker:Alan Farrell

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Cyber Security: Discussion (Resumed) (18 Oct 2017)

Alan Farrell: I will ask the witnesses if an answer is possible.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Cyber Security: Discussion (Resumed) (18 Oct 2017)

Alan Farrell: I thank all the witnesses for their contributions, responses and their presence here this morning. I thank them formally for answering our questions in such a comprehensive manner. I propose that the committee now moves in to private session to deal with some housekeeping matters.

Public Accounts Committee: HIQA: Governance and Management of Conflict of Interest Issues (19 Oct 2017)

Alan Farrell: I will be very brief. I thank our guests for attending. I appreciate the amount of time they have spent here. I also thank Deputy Catherine Murphy for that final question. It was also one of the final questions I had on my list, which illustrated my satisfaction in general and in particular with the responses Ms Dunnion, as director of regulation, provided in terms of her opinion on...

Public Accounts Committee: Tusla - Financial Statements 2016 (19 Oct 2017)

Alan Farrell: I thank Mr. McBride for his patience. I apologise for leaving him for almost five hours. Unfortunately, as the Chairman outlined, that is the nature of this House from time to time. I welcome Tusla's third-year audit and its clear audit from the Comptroller and Auditor General. While not wanting to diminish the exceptions relating to procurement, payroll etc., they are rather usual. It...

Public Accounts Committee: Tusla - Financial Statements 2016 (19 Oct 2017)

Alan Farrell: I do not wish to interrupt Mr. McBride. We are talking about not following procurement rules here. I appreciate he is outlining a number of agencies or organisations from which Tusla is hiring. Why were the procurement rules not followed for these goods and services?

Public Accounts Committee: Tusla - Financial Statements 2016 (19 Oct 2017)

Alan Farrell: My only observation is that with Tusla being a new agency only three and a half years old, I would have hoped that we would start afresh with a new organisation and not bring in some of the bad habits - I do not want to call them that, but let us call them what they are - from other Departments. It is lamentable when a new agency, such as Tusla, is bringing €5.2 million of bad habits...

Public Accounts Committee: Tusla - Financial Statements 2016 (19 Oct 2017)

Alan Farrell: From an accountancy perspective, the Comptroller and Auditor General was. That is what appears in Tusla's financial statement.

Public Accounts Committee: Tusla - Financial Statements 2016 (19 Oct 2017)

Alan Farrell: I did.

Public Accounts Committee: Tusla - Financial Statements 2016 (19 Oct 2017)

Alan Farrell: In the agency's three-year plan on procurement, what level of decreases will we expect to see in next year's accounts, for example?

Public Accounts Committee: Tusla - Financial Statements 2016 (19 Oct 2017)

Alan Farrell: Okay. We will wait until next year for that. I mentioned the service level agreements, SLAs, and I will focus for a moment on the compliance side as opposed to anything that might have gone on. Why would it be the case that a third party agency would be subject to a service level agreement it has not signed? Why would Tusla effectively allow six to nine months to pass before receiving...

Public Accounts Committee: Tusla - Financial Statements 2016 (19 Oct 2017)

Alan Farrell: One of the alarming statements in the report was that it is not possible for the agency to provide assurances on all moneys provided to grant-aided agencies. The agency's approach to enhancing governance and control has been to address the areas where there is identified potential risk. We are not talking about a small amount of money. I hope we can see improvements in that. Tusla only...

Public Accounts Committee: Tusla - Financial Statements 2016 (19 Oct 2017)

Alan Farrell: In terms of the 15 identified in this annual report, is it comparable? Let us compare like with like.

Public Accounts Committee: Tusla - Financial Statements 2016 (19 Oct 2017)

Alan Farrell: It is 17, so we have not had a big increase, which is what I was hoping for as Tusla was funding 986 agencies in 2016. Is there a plan to ramp up the number of audits being done to ensure we do not have procurement or expenditure difficulties, or money not being expended correctly?

Public Accounts Committee: Tusla - Financial Statements 2016 (19 Oct 2017)

Alan Farrell: I see.

Public Accounts Committee: Tusla - Financial Statements 2016 (19 Oct 2017)

Alan Farrell: Tusla will be given additional resources next year so will it be in a position to allocate any of them towards an internal audit function? Is that the intention?

Public Accounts Committee: Tusla - Financial Statements 2016 (19 Oct 2017)

Alan Farrell: It is a process and it is being looked at. I am quite surprised by the VAT issue. The agency was operational for two and a half years when the Revenue notified it that it was not to charge VAT. I find that a bit strange. My own dealings with the Revenue Commissioners led me to believe that if I did something wrong, I would know within a week or two at the most. That was back when I was...

Public Accounts Committee: Tusla - Financial Statements 2016 (19 Oct 2017)

Alan Farrell: Very good. My question was to be how much is left to be collected but that is fine. Within the payroll section, there were overpayments of €422,000 in 2015 and that rose to €721,000 in 2016. Why has there been a significant increase? Is this to do with more people being employed or is there some other issue?

Public Accounts Committee: Tusla - Financial Statements 2016 (19 Oct 2017)

Alan Farrell: I see.

Public Accounts Committee: Tusla - Financial Statements 2016 (19 Oct 2017)

Alan Farrell: That is this year.

Public Accounts Committee: Tusla - Financial Statements 2016 (19 Oct 2017)

Alan Farrell: Are there are any non-compliant or non-participating members of staff?