Results 23,821-23,840 of 34,729 for speaker:Seán Fleming

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Chapter 24 - Accounts of the National Treasury Management Agency
National Treasury Management Agency Financial Statements 2015 (21 Jul 2016)

Seán Fleming: What is in place in this area? In what way does the NTMA need to expand this area?

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Chapter 24 - Accounts of the National Treasury Management Agency
National Treasury Management Agency Financial Statements 2015 (21 Jul 2016)

Seán Fleming: Is the Irish taxpayer still investing in tobacco?

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Chapter 24 - Accounts of the National Treasury Management Agency
National Treasury Management Agency Financial Statements 2015 (21 Jul 2016)

Seán Fleming: The delegates will come back to us specifically on this issue.

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Chapter 24 - Accounts of the National Treasury Management Agency
National Treasury Management Agency Financial Statements 2015 (21 Jul 2016)

Seán Fleming: I have a few questions to ask, some of which relate to the annual report. Approximately 15% of staff got bonuses, which is approximately 60 people. They got an average payment of €8,000. I see on the remuneration chart on page 54 of the annual accounts that of the 430 staff members, approximately 330 earn salaries of under €100,000 and approximately 100 earn salaries of more...

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Chapter 24 - Accounts of the National Treasury Management Agency
National Treasury Management Agency Financial Statements 2015 (21 Jul 2016)

Seán Fleming: It is good that I am asking the question so that Mr. O'Kelly can say that publicly.

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Chapter 24 - Accounts of the National Treasury Management Agency
National Treasury Management Agency Financial Statements 2015 (21 Jul 2016)

Seán Fleming: It is good to hear that. I turn to page 90 of the accounts and direct the following question to the Department of Finance. Agency membership fees for 2015 were €30,000 per member of the board, or agency as the Department calls it. I acknowledge that the chairman, Mr. Willie Walsh, waived his remuneration for 2015, 2014 and other years. I want to record that. I see from the...

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Chapter 24 - Accounts of the National Treasury Management Agency
National Treasury Management Agency Financial Statements 2015 (21 Jul 2016)

Seán Fleming: Do they have to attend more board meetings now? It is not big money but it is the idea of a 20% increase for some group of people in the public service when that is generally not available to the other 300,000 people.

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Chapter 24 - Accounts of the National Treasury Management Agency
National Treasury Management Agency Financial Statements 2015 (21 Jul 2016)

Seán Fleming: I am just putting the question out there. Was that an exception from the Department's perspective? Did it increase board fees for any other State body or was this an exception?

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Chapter 24 - Accounts of the National Treasury Management Agency
National Treasury Management Agency Financial Statements 2015 (21 Jul 2016)

Seán Fleming: Mr. Dorgan might come back to the committee because we would like to know if this was an isolated case and who made the case for it. It is not big money at €30,000 but there has been a 20% increase for somebody in the system.

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Chapter 24 - Accounts of the National Treasury Management Agency
National Treasury Management Agency Financial Statements 2015 (21 Jul 2016)

Seán Fleming: Mr. Dorgan might send us on a note. Dealing with pages 92 and 93 and this issue of garden leave for people who have left, it does not jump out at me. What was the total cost of garden leave in 2015? That is agency staff and it seems a lot of them were NAMA people who had left employment but could not go on.

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Chapter 24 - Accounts of the National Treasury Management Agency
National Treasury Management Agency Financial Statements 2015 (21 Jul 2016)

Seán Fleming: What was the average payment per person?

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Chapter 24 - Accounts of the National Treasury Management Agency
National Treasury Management Agency Financial Statements 2015 (21 Jul 2016)

Seán Fleming: That is fine. It is just to record that. I move on to the State Claims Agency at page 118. I have a couple of question on the agency and people will know that I have form on this from the past. I still cannot get over the cost of legal fees on either side. Can the agency send on to the committee, as it has done previously, the top ten payments in the years 2013 to 2015, inclusive, to...

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Chapter 24 - Accounts of the National Treasury Management Agency
National Treasury Management Agency Financial Statements 2015 (21 Jul 2016)

Seán Fleming: So is it the case that it is always going to be a tiny per cent?

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Chapter 24 - Accounts of the National Treasury Management Agency
National Treasury Management Agency Financial Statements 2015 (21 Jul 2016)

Seán Fleming: It will, therefore, be mainly loan finance.

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Chapter 24 - Accounts of the National Treasury Management Agency
National Treasury Management Agency Financial Statements 2015 (21 Jul 2016)

Seán Fleming: How much more does the NTMA intend investing in Irish Water? I see there is a loan to Irish Water in the back page of the accounts as well. That is €650 million that the NTMA has put into Irish Water.

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Chapter 24 - Accounts of the National Treasury Management Agency
National Treasury Management Agency Financial Statements 2015 (21 Jul 2016)

Seán Fleming: So €450 million includes the loan.

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Chapter 24 - Accounts of the National Treasury Management Agency
National Treasury Management Agency Financial Statements 2015 (21 Jul 2016)

Seán Fleming: The €450 million includes the loan. Just to help people, I am on to-----

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Chapter 24 - Accounts of the National Treasury Management Agency
National Treasury Management Agency Financial Statements 2015 (21 Jul 2016)

Seán Fleming: The Deputy can ask a question if it is on this topic. I have two more small questions.

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Chapter 24 - Accounts of the National Treasury Management Agency
National Treasury Management Agency Financial Statements 2015 (21 Jul 2016)

Seán Fleming: Yes, we will deal with it now.

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Chapter 24 - Accounts of the National Treasury Management Agency
National Treasury Management Agency Financial Statements 2015 (21 Jul 2016)

Seán Fleming: That is very interesting and hopefully it will be of benefit. I have one or two other small points on the financial statements at page 141. It is a strategic investment fund. We will all get lost in this. I see a figure in the directed portfolio - directed by the Minister - for the NTMA to invest mainly in AIB and Bank of Ireland shares. There is an item in 2014 that has gone in 2015 -...