Results 24,001-24,020 of 34,729 for speaker:Seán Fleming

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 92 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Strategic Planning for Flood Risk Management (14 Jul 2016)

Seán Fleming: This is a shocking start to the work of this new Committee of Public Accounts. At our first public meeting we learn that the pilot projects were estimated to cost €3.5 million but that the actual cost to the end of June 2016 was €9.1 million. That is 200% over budget. What was so wrong with the original indicative costs? Will Ms McGrath explain how the OPW got it so wrong?...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 92 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Strategic Planning for Flood Risk Management (14 Jul 2016)

Seán Fleming: Does Ms McGrath accept that we must interrogate the fact that the original figure was €3.5 million but that the exercise ended up costing €9.1 million? The committee thought that public bodies were beginning to get the estimates of costs more under control. I am shocked at the extent of the overrun on the original estimate. We have not heard of a figure being 200% over an...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 92 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Strategic Planning for Flood Risk Management (14 Jul 2016)

Seán Fleming: Is it possible to indicate the projects that did not proceed as a result of having to find an additional sum of almost €6 million to cover the under-estimated cost of the pilot project? Perhaps Ms McGrath might send a note to the committee on that.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 92 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Strategic Planning for Flood Risk Management (14 Jul 2016)

Seán Fleming: Fine. Will the Accounting Officer send us a detailed, up-to-date costing of each of the projects with the current position?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 92 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Strategic Planning for Flood Risk Management (14 Jul 2016)

Seán Fleming: We are just about on time. We will have an opportunity to come back to Deputy Cullinane. We have gone a good bit over.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 92 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Strategic Planning for Flood Risk Management (14 Jul 2016)

Seán Fleming: Thank you, and finally, very briefly, I want to raise two issues. One, in respect of the maps the OPW submits to local authorities, many local authorities include those maps in their development plans. Should they? You said a minute ago that they are indicative. Should they be part of their development plans because a development plan is the Bible. It is a bit late in the day to tell a...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 92 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Strategic Planning for Flood Risk Management (14 Jul 2016)

Seán Fleming: A planner’s discretion is very constrained if there is a map from the OPW saying there is a flood risk here of one in 500 years. The second point is that when people try to buy property in those areas, or in a town that never flooded, the bank’s solicitor checks it out and discovers it is a flood area and the bank will not advance the loan. I have encountered people who...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 92 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Strategic Planning for Flood Risk Management (14 Jul 2016)

Seán Fleming: When you send these maps to local authorities, is there a circular you send with them to explain how they should use them? Surely they do not just arrive in an envelope. What instructions or covering letter do you send with the maps for the local authorities to deal with? I will ask you to send it to the committee so that we can see whether what it says to them tallies with what they say...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 92 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Strategic Planning for Flood Risk Management (14 Jul 2016)

Seán Fleming: Whatever communication you have with local authorities for dealing with this-----

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 92 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Strategic Planning for Flood Risk Management (14 Jul 2016)

Seán Fleming: Can you send a copy to the committee so that we will know what the local authorities have received from you about the usage of these maps?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 92 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Strategic Planning for Flood Risk Management (14 Jul 2016)

Seán Fleming: You say you will send 13,000 maps to the European Commission. I am afraid that when they land there, they will be stamped. What legal significance will they have? Will we be told you cannot touch these maps, they are EU approved? There are local designations, national designations and EU designations. Will they end up with an EU designation because they end up in the Commission? Explain...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 92 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Strategic Planning for Flood Risk Management (14 Jul 2016)

Seán Fleming: What do you expect the Commission to do with those maps? What significance do they have?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 92 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Strategic Planning for Flood Risk Management (14 Jul 2016)

Seán Fleming: If there are no further questions-----

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 92 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Strategic Planning for Flood Risk Management (14 Jul 2016)

Seán Fleming: You will submit that documentation to us and whatever guidance notes-----

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 92 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Strategic Planning for Flood Risk Management (14 Jul 2016)

Seán Fleming: Can you assist and liaise with the clerk? Whether it is the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government or the OPW which sends it out, we would like to see it. Whether it is the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government or the OPW, we would like to see that guidance.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 92 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Strategic Planning for Flood Risk Management (14 Jul 2016)

Seán Fleming: This document might be of help to us here to make sure there is a bit of consistency across local authorities, because we do hear of different local authorities using those maps differently. Some of them take it as the bible and there is no negotiation after it. Other local authorities do it differently. At this stage, on behalf of the Committee of Public Accounts, I thank all of the...

Regulation of Charities: Motion [Private Members] (12 Jul 2016)

Seán Fleming: I congratulate the Leas-Cheann Comhairle on his election to the post. It is good to see him in the Chair this evening. I join my colleague Deputy Jim O’Callaghan in thanking the Social Democrats and the Green Party for tabling the motion. Everybody agrees with the sentiment of the motion and most people will be happy to support it. The motion has come before us because so many...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Medicinal Products Prices (12 Jul 2016)

Seán Fleming: 26. To ask the Minister for Health how Ireland’s expenditure on medicines compares to other European Union member states when considered as a share of overall health expenditure. [20976/16]

Written Answers — Department of Health: Medicinal Products Prices (12 Jul 2016)

Seán Fleming: 97. To ask the Minister for Health the savings he anticipates from the agreement with the Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association. [20975/16]

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Work Permits Applications (12 Jul 2016)

Seán Fleming: 796. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation when a work permit will be awarded to a person (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [20756/16]