Results 2,781-2,800 of 16,216 for speaker:Peadar Tóibín

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Peadar Tóibín: Does the Minister think Robert Watt's judgment was impaired in not telling him? Does he have any questions at all over the judgment of Robert Watt in not telling him?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Peadar Tóibín: So there is a question mark over his judgment in not telling the Minister. The Minister accepts that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Peadar Tóibín: The issue is that we had the Secretary General in here previously . Even with the benefit of hindsight, he disagreed with a significant amount of the conclusions and analysis in the report. Even with the benefit of hindsight, his judgment is still contrary to the Minister's analysis of what happened.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Peadar Tóibín: Is the Minister worried that the Secretary General may be withholding information from him on other issues?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Peadar Tóibín: Does the Minister agree with the report that the secondment bypassed all acceptable protocols?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Peadar Tóibín: The report states very clearly, on page 22, that the process "by-passed all of the accepted protocols for research funding and was linked atypically to one named individual." Does the Minister agree with that conclusion?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Peadar Tóibín: Okay.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Peadar Tóibín: The Secretary General refused to accept that point.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Peadar Tóibín: The report clearly states in black in white that the protocols were bypassed. The Secretary General does not agree with that. He actually challenged that point. Does the Minister think his judgment is incorrect in that regard?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Peadar Tóibín: This is important because there is a situation here whereby the report very clearly states that accepted protocols were bypassed. It further states that funding mechanisms breached all acceptable norms in scrutiny, transparency and accountability. Even prior to this report and prior to the publicity that happened, there was a massive divergence in the role that the Secretary General should...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Peadar Tóibín: At the start of the Minister's presentation in the last section, he mentioned how busy they were with so much going on and so much debate going on. This particular secondment was no small thing. It is important to say that in flashing neon lights. This country has been hammered in previous generations because of an inner circle of people who benefited from the largesse of the State. Most...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Peadar Tóibín: So the Secretary General of the Minister’s Department will implement the recommendations that he disagrees with.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Peadar Tóibín: Okay. If we take the whole timeline, we had a Secretary General who for six months did not think to tell the Minister – withheld the information – that we have a botched secondment situation. The Secretary General was then asked to initially investigate his own actions. Finally, there was a report to be written independently, with which he disagrees, and now he will be the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Peadar Tóibín: Publicly? Can the Minister give me a single example of any civil servant who publicly disagrees with the policy he or she is asked to implement?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Peadar Tóibín: But not publicly. They would not disagree with it publicly.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Peadar Tóibín: I am asking the Minister to give me an example of a public servant who has publicly disagreed with a policy that they are asked to implement.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Peadar Tóibín: The national children's hospital is now seen by many as a monument to maladministration, unfortunately. The Taoiseach, who was the Minister for Health at the time-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Peadar Tóibín: I will ask two questions at the same time.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Peadar Tóibín: The Taoiseach, when he was the Minister for Health at the time, said that "short of an asteroid hitting the planet" the national children's hospital would be built for €700 million by 2020. It is amazing. He did not have the insight that Deputy Durkan had at the time, unfortunately. I see myself as a left-of-centre political activist and I believe in the State being very involved in...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Peadar Tóibín: The Minister was going to complete his policy response to Deputy Durkan and then maybe address some of my questions.