Results 21,501-21,520 of 34,729 for speaker:Seán Fleming

Public Accounts Committee: Report of the Accounts of the Public Services 2015
Chapter 11 - Guardian Ad Litem Service (19 Jan 2017)

Seán Fleming: Where is that?

Public Accounts Committee: Report of the Accounts of the Public Services 2015
Chapter 11 - Guardian Ad Litem Service (19 Jan 2017)

Seán Fleming: I thank the Comptroller and Auditor General. I invite the Secretary General of the Department of Children and Youth Affairs, Dr. Fergal Lynch, to make his opening statement.

Public Accounts Committee: Report of the Accounts of the Public Services 2015
Chapter 11 - Guardian Ad Litem Service (19 Jan 2017)

Seán Fleming: I thank the witness for a concise opening statement. At this stage, I invite Deputy Josepha Madigan to begin. She has 20 minutes.

Public Accounts Committee: Report of the Accounts of the Public Services 2015
Chapter 11 - Guardian Ad Litem Service (19 Jan 2017)

Seán Fleming: Before I call Deputy Cassells, I wish to clarify one item that arose. Dr. Lynch said that the legislation being drafted would provide for a single national provider and he said the Department is going through a tendering process. Has it been decided to privatise the service or should it be part of the State service if the Department is going for procurement?

Public Accounts Committee: Report of the Accounts of the Public Services 2015
Chapter 11 - Guardian Ad Litem Service (19 Jan 2017)

Seán Fleming: That is exactly where I thought this was leading. If the Department goes through public procurement and contracts it out to one provider, how can it come along the following year and specify in legislation that it will be incorporated in a statutory structure with people paid a salary, like the Probation Service, having just put the other in place? From the point of view of the Committee of...

Public Accounts Committee: Report of the Accounts of the Public Services 2015
Chapter 11 - Guardian Ad Litem Service (19 Jan 2017)

Seán Fleming: Okay.

Public Accounts Committee: Report of the Accounts of the Public Services 2015
Chapter 11 - Guardian Ad Litem Service (19 Jan 2017)

Seán Fleming: Dr. Lynch mentioned three years or five years. Would it be important that the contract not be so long that if there is a decision to work within the existing statutory structure, which we all think is a good idea, we do not find ourselves stuck with a five-year contract? The Department should be conscious when it goes through procurement that it does not tie its hands and end up in a...

Public Accounts Committee: Report of the Accounts of the Public Services 2015
Chapter 11 - Guardian Ad Litem Service (19 Jan 2017)

Seán Fleming: I ask Mr. McBride to provide it to one of the secretariat officials and we will photocopy it, if that is reasonable. One of our staff will make photocopies for every member. Is Mr. McBride happy to circulate that sheet of paper?

Public Accounts Committee: Report of the Accounts of the Public Services 2015
Chapter 11 - Guardian Ad Litem Service (19 Jan 2017)

Seán Fleming: I thank Mr. McBride. That will be done.

Public Accounts Committee: Report of the Accounts of the Public Services 2015
Chapter 11 - Guardian Ad Litem Service (19 Jan 2017)

Seán Fleming: I have to ask the Deputy to stop because somebody's mobile phone is interfering with the sound recording system. We cannot hear what is being said.

Public Accounts Committee: Report of the Accounts of the Public Services 2015
Chapter 11 - Guardian Ad Litem Service (19 Jan 2017)

Seán Fleming: For the benefit of the public, will Dr. Lynch explain the difference between child welfare cases and child protection cases? He understands the subtle differences but not everybody does.

Public Accounts Committee: Report of the Accounts of the Public Services 2015
Chapter 11 - Guardian Ad Litem Service (19 Jan 2017)

Seán Fleming: Some of those comments are probably more directed at the Minister and the political heads of the Department of Children and Youth Affairs, rather than at Dr. Lynch. Some of them are on policy, but we accept that, so I do not expect Dr. Lynch to get into that argument. I call Deputy Murphy.

Public Accounts Committee: Report of the Accounts of the Public Services 2015
Chapter 11 - Guardian Ad Litem Service (19 Jan 2017)

Seán Fleming: A valid point.

Public Accounts Committee: Report of the Accounts of the Public Services 2015
Chapter 11 - Guardian Ad Litem Service (19 Jan 2017)

Seán Fleming: I have a few questions having listened to what has been said today. In your opening statement you said that: "I am pleased to inform the committee that on 17 January the Government approved the heads of the Bill". Had that been announced before this morning?

Public Accounts Committee: Report of the Accounts of the Public Services 2015
Chapter 11 - Guardian Ad Litem Service (19 Jan 2017)

Seán Fleming: It was good that was on the books before you got here today.

Public Accounts Committee: Report of the Accounts of the Public Services 2015
Chapter 11 - Guardian Ad Litem Service (19 Jan 2017)

Seán Fleming: We are pleased with that, in any event. Having listened to you, I am not clear on the thinking behind this. I will take two examples of what you just said and we will deal with them one by one. You said that with more GALs in the system the service could be increased and there would be no closed shop, and there will not be a cartel. You said something like that just a moment ago....

Public Accounts Committee: Report of the Accounts of the Public Services 2015
Chapter 11 - Guardian Ad Litem Service (19 Jan 2017)

Seán Fleming: I will come to the economies of scale in a moment. You gave a flavour of what will be in the legislation. The Comptroller and Auditor General's report refers to section 1 of the Children's Act, advisory board guidelines, giving advice to children's wishes, feelings and interests, of May 2009. That group was abolished in 2011. It talks about the qualifications and training for GALs. It...

Public Accounts Committee: Report of the Accounts of the Public Services 2015
Chapter 11 - Guardian Ad Litem Service (19 Jan 2017)

Seán Fleming: It sounds like a three-stage process. The first stage is the procurement, the second stage is the new legislation and the third stage is the further legislation required in relation to the structure and where it is going to be placed, be that in the Courts Service or somewhere else. That has not even been decided yet by the Government in the heads of the Bill. You are going ahead with the...

Public Accounts Committee: Report of the Accounts of the Public Services 2015
Chapter 11 - Guardian Ad Litem Service (19 Jan 2017)

Seán Fleming: I will make two observations as a practising Deputy, not so much as a Chairman. I ask the Department to do a favour, not for me, but for the children. Dr. Lynch mentioned the possibility that this service could end up within the courts system. That is no place for a structure for vulnerable children to be. It is not acceptable that before they even start the process, they are part of the...

Public Accounts Committee: Report of the Accounts of the Public Services 2015
Chapter 11 - Guardian Ad Litem Service (19 Jan 2017)

Seán Fleming: -----but it is an example of the thinking that is going on. I welcome Dr. Lynch's opening statement. The only part of it I did not like was that part in which he talked about the need for significant reform, which he mentioned at the beginning of his statement. He said that one of the issues is that the service is essentially demand led and determined by decision of the courts, as if that...