Results 20,981-21,000 of 26,624 for speaker:John McGuinness

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (20 Jun 2013)

John McGuinness: We are trying to accommodate Deputy Fleming and the others who made that point. My job is to make the committee happy.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (20 Jun 2013)

John McGuinness: If the Deputy is happy with September, I am happy.

Public Accounts Committee: 2009 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 37 - SKILL Programme (Resumed)
2010 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 41 - Partnership Arrangements in the Health Service
Special Report No. 80 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Administration of National Health and Local Authority Levy Fund (20 Jun 2013)

John McGuinness: Before we begin, I remind members, witnesses and those in the Visitors Gallery to turn off all mobile telephones as they interfere with the sound quality and transmission of the meeting. By virtue of section 17(2)(l) of the Defamation Act 2009, witnesses are protected by absolute privilege in respect of the evidence they are to give this committee. If a witness is directed by the committee...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (20 Jun 2013)

John McGuinness: A private meeting will have to take place fairly soon and the narrative as we know it to date will have to be gone through at that meeting. Then the broader issue that the Deputy raised ---

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (20 Jun 2013)

John McGuinness: Yes. That is what we are saying. We could arrange it for next Tuesday or Wednesday.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (20 Jun 2013)

John McGuinness: We might want to have more time than that, if the public meeting is at 3 p.m.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (20 Jun 2013)

John McGuinness: I am not happy with having a meeting at 2 p.m. and then meeting the witnesses at 3 p.m.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (20 Jun 2013)

John McGuinness: We want to leave work programme flexible, depending on what happens here. We will agree that the work programme we have before us is only indicative. Deputy Deasy wanted to raise a matter under any other business.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (20 Jun 2013)

John McGuinness: Could Deputy Deasy say that again? Where in Waterford?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (20 Jun 2013)

John McGuinness: We had the Accounting Officer for the Valuation Office before us some time ago. He gave us an outline of the work being undertaken by his office. I understand that there is now a new Accounting Officer in place. We can certainly invite the office to come before the committee as soon as possible, if that is what Deputy Deasy wants.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (20 Jun 2013)

John McGuinness: What does the Deputy suggest we do?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (20 Jun 2013)

John McGuinness: We will send a transcript of this meeting to the Valuation Office and the Minister for Finance. As I recall it, the last time the Accounting Officer for the Valuation Office was before us, he mentioned the fact that he was making suggestions as to how the process could be speeded or expedited in the context of the rest of the country. Perhaps he could send us the recommendations that he has...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (20 Jun 2013)

John McGuinness: We will reflect the Deputy's views in correspondence, coupled with a transcript of this meeting and send it to the appropriate agencies and Department. We will highlight the urgency of the issue and ask for a reply.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (20 Jun 2013)

John McGuinness: I will separate the two issues if I can to try to help the committee to make a decision. The issue raised by Deputy John Deasy was raised a number of times at the last meeting. It is important we keep the two separate. The issue raised by him is hugely important and we do not want it to appear as if we are allowing it to run into the other issue, or that we are implying anything by doing...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (20 Jun 2013)

John McGuinness: That is how it has worked until now. That is the process laid down and we cannot deviate from that. Everything will hinge on the content of our report and what Mr. Elderfield said on a number of occasions will have to be included in a very specific way in that report. The committee will have an input into how that is presented and then after that publication, which we expect in the next...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (20 Jun 2013)

John McGuinness: We wait for the minute to come back. That minute can take a long time but because of the specific nature of this particular issue, we can draw attention to it and say that whatever about the rest of the report, we would like a response directly to this particular issue because it has been raised by someone very senior in the world of finance.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (20 Jun 2013)

John McGuinness: We will attach that importance to whatever way it is expressed in the report. We will do it in the way the Deputy said. He will have an input into finalising that before anything is published. On the second issue, which goes beyond the Dublin Docklands Development Authority hearing, I suggest to members that we should have a separate private session around the information we now have...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (20 Jun 2013)

John McGuinness: Then we need to look at it in the context of what we now know about this particular inquiry.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (20 Jun 2013)

John McGuinness: No, it is wider. The members can ask questions in that private session relative to this inquiry. They will have the benefit of that knowledge as they proceed to public session. That will be beneficial to members. Perhaps that is how we should proceed on that particular issue. Is that agreed? Agreed.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (20 Jun 2013)

John McGuinness: We will include that in correspondence. Is that agreed? Agreed. We have covered the other submissions from the Dún Laoghaire VEC and the Office of the Disability Appeals Officer and we will now deal with the work programme. I ask the clerk to outline the correspondence we have received, the responses we received and how we will deal with the programme of witnesses.