Results 19,981-20,000 of 34,726 for speaker:Seán Fleming

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (6 Apr 2017)

Seán Fleming: The Garda training college in Templemore, yes.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (6 Apr 2017)

Seán Fleming: When they are in, we will deal with the Vote for An Garda Síochána. It is a separate Vote. We will deal with the Vote, specifically the Templemore issue, and the issue of resources to which we referred at a previous meeting and which was referred to in a different manner at the justice committee meeting last week. They are the three points. We will see if that can happen. We do...

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Waterford Institute of Technology: Financial Statements 2013-2014 (6 Apr 2017)

Seán Fleming: We are dealing again with the third level education sector. With regard to our examination of the financial statements in the education sector, over the past two weeks we have met with representatives of the Department of Education and Skills, the Higher Education Authority, University College Cork, Dundalk Institute of Technology and University of Limerick. Today we will continue with three...

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Waterford Institute of Technology: Financial Statements 2013-2014 (6 Apr 2017)

Seán Fleming: I invite Professor Donnelly to make his opening remarks.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Waterford Institute of Technology: Financial Statements 2013-2014 (6 Apr 2017)

Seán Fleming: Is it the Comptroller and Auditor General's statement?

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Waterford Institute of Technology: Financial Statements 2013-2014 (6 Apr 2017)

Seán Fleming: We will get one for the Deputy as soon as we can.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Waterford Institute of Technology: Financial Statements 2013-2014 (6 Apr 2017)

Seán Fleming: I acknowledge Professor Donnelly's opening statement. I have to make an important statement before we commence our meeting. The accounts the president presented here today cover the period 1 September 2013 to 31 August 2014. The institute has not completed the audit of the accounts for any period since then. For any organisation to come to the Committee on Public Accounts with accounts...

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Waterford Institute of Technology: Financial Statements 2013-2014 (6 Apr 2017)

Seán Fleming: We will continue with our meeting to discuss the various third level institutions and colleges represented here. The plan is to discuss with Waterford Institute of Technology, Dublin Institute of Technology and the National University of Ireland, Galway, issues concerning their financial statements. We note that none of the three organisations has completed audited or published their...

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Waterford Institute of Technology: Financial Statements 2013-2014 (6 Apr 2017)

Seán Fleming: I thank Ms Drinan. We will now have brief comments from members of the committee, starting with Deputy McDonald who indicated first. There will then be questions to the HEA and the Department about the issues so that we can see where we stand.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Waterford Institute of Technology: Financial Statements 2013-2014 (6 Apr 2017)

Seán Fleming: I will take a comment from Deputies Cullinane, Catherine Murphy and Connolly in that sequence.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Waterford Institute of Technology: Financial Statements 2013-2014 (6 Apr 2017)

Seán Fleming: We will ask for a response when the members have put their questions.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Waterford Institute of Technology: Financial Statements 2013-2014 (6 Apr 2017)

Seán Fleming: It has just occurred to me that the witnesses from Waterford Institute of Technology are standing in the hall and not hearing what has been said. I propose that they be invited to sit in the Visitors Gallery so that they will hear the contributions because they are not hearing anything. We will continue but we will ask the witnesses from Waterford to take seats in the Gallery so that they...

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Waterford Institute of Technology: Financial Statements 2013-2014 (6 Apr 2017)

Seán Fleming: I will ask Dr. Love to comment first and then I will ask Mr. Mannion to give the Department's view on the issue of intellectual property rights. One of the issues to be considered is the fact that physical resources, equipment and staff costs are all paid for by the taxpayer in these institutions. However, when the taxpayer gets 1% of the spin-out company, we have no idea whether that even...

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Waterford Institute of Technology: Financial Statements 2013-2014 (6 Apr 2017)

Seán Fleming: The committee has no negative view on that issue. I invite Dr. Love to comment. I am asking him to respond and to demonstrate that he has listened to what has been said. Indeed, the authority and the Department have a lot more listening to do and actions to take in the context of the funding and their hands-off approach.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Waterford Institute of Technology: Financial Statements 2013-2014 (6 Apr 2017)

Seán Fleming: What about the lateness of the accounts?

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Waterford Institute of Technology: Financial Statements 2013-2014 (6 Apr 2017)

Seán Fleming: Finally, I ask Mr. Mannion to comment on behalf of the Department.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Waterford Institute of Technology: Financial Statements 2013-2014 (6 Apr 2017)

Seán Fleming: We will try to wrap up this section.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Waterford Institute of Technology: Financial Statements 2013-2014 (6 Apr 2017)

Seán Fleming: Is the Deputy talking about last week?

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Waterford Institute of Technology: Financial Statements 2013-2014 (6 Apr 2017)

Seán Fleming: We will put Mr. McCarthy on notice of that so he can respond at next week's meeting. The Committee of Public Accounts cannot direct the Comptroller and Auditor General to carry out a specific investigation but we can request it and we will want a response to that request next week. That was a quick comment by the Deputy in the meantime.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Waterford Institute of Technology: Financial Statements 2013-2014 (6 Apr 2017)

Seán Fleming: He can talk to us next Thursday when he appears in person. At this stage, we have concluded this particular aspect so we will suspend for a moment while the witnesses from Waterford Institute of Technology take their seats.