Results 28,121-28,140 of 34,778 for speaker:Seán Fleming

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 11 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances
Chapter 3 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 4 - Vote Accounting
Chapter 5 - Vote Budget Management (3 Apr 2014)

Seán Fleming: I assume that liability was on the State's balance sheet when they were run by local authorities. Will that be transferred from the State's balance sheet to Irish Water's now?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 11 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances
Chapter 3 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 4 - Vote Accounting
Chapter 5 - Vote Budget Management (3 Apr 2014)

Seán Fleming: How much has been taken off the national debt and handed to Irish Water? Does Mr. Watt know or does he need to come back to us?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 11 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances
Chapter 3 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 4 - Vote Accounting
Chapter 5 - Vote Budget Management (3 Apr 2014)

Seán Fleming: Given that there was a large expenditure commitment, I would like to know if the national debt has been magicked down by €500 million. Mr. Watt will come back and tell us.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 11 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances
Chapter 3 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 4 - Vote Accounting
Chapter 5 - Vote Budget Management (3 Apr 2014)

Seán Fleming: Mr. Watt can understand my question.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 11 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances
Chapter 3 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 4 - Vote Accounting
Chapter 5 - Vote Budget Management (3 Apr 2014)

Seán Fleming: We will come back to it. A few PPPs were mentioned in the report. I am pleased a penalty charge has been provided for if the Central Criminal Courts complex is unavailable for any period due to flooding of 1% or €204,000. The Department will save 1% of the annual payment and that is good. Aside from the non-availability for that one day, surely there were knock-on costs and delays....

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 11 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances
Chapter 3 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 4 - Vote Accounting
Chapter 5 - Vote Budget Management (3 Apr 2014)

Seán Fleming: Mr. Watt might send us a brief note.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 11 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances
Chapter 3 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 4 - Vote Accounting
Chapter 5 - Vote Budget Management (3 Apr 2014)

Seán Fleming: I refer to the PPP for the National Convention Centre. Treasury Holdings, which is in liquidation, is the owner of that property. The OPW is the contracting authority and the venue continues to operate even though the owner is in NAMA. Mr. Watt is the Accounting Officer for all Government expenditure. The OPW had a commitment to pay so much per annum to Treasury Holdings - the figures are...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 11 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances
Chapter 3 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 4 - Vote Accounting
Chapter 5 - Vote Budget Management (3 Apr 2014)

Seán Fleming: The HSE has been before this committee talking about its section 39 agreements and contracts. Will this lead to a further revision of the documentation?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 11 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances
Chapter 3 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 4 - Vote Accounting
Chapter 5 - Vote Budget Management (3 Apr 2014)

Seán Fleming: There are two sides to Government procurement. The Department wants to achieve value for money but there is a possible negative knock-on effect for a local suppliers. Members of the Irish School Art Supply Federation came before this committee and they were very concerned about this. My colleague, Deputy Connaughton, will deal with that. Mr. Watt believes his Department has a good record...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 11 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances
Chapter 3 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 4 - Vote Accounting
Chapter 5 - Vote Budget Management (3 Apr 2014)

Seán Fleming: Mr. Watt has heard me suggest this before and I agree it should be done. However, HSE-funded hospitals are still not using generic drugs but branded ones. Whatever about forcing GPs to prescribe generic drugs, how has the simple message not got down to the HSE-run hospitals to use the generic drugs? It is absolutely crazy.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 11 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances
Chapter 3 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 4 - Vote Accounting
Chapter 5 - Vote Budget Management (3 Apr 2014)

Seán Fleming: Mr. Watt said he offered his assistance. He should be telling the Secretary General that this will happen because the weight of public support is behind the Department in getting control of this and it should not be a question of whether the Secretary General feels like taking up Mr. Watt's offer. We are fully agreed on the need to achieve more savings generally. After Mr. Watt's last...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 11 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances
Chapter 3 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 4 - Vote Accounting
Chapter 5 - Vote Budget Management (3 Apr 2014)

Seán Fleming: Mr. Watt sent us that letter on 12 November 2013. Could he send us an update? How much of that €305 million target was realised? Mr. Watt probably knows that figure, but could he send us the detail? We have just finished talking about IMF fiscal transparency. Mr. Watt abolished the review committee that independently verified savings, which we had under the Croke Park agreement....

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 11 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances
Chapter 3 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 4 - Vote Accounting
Chapter 5 - Vote Budget Management (3 Apr 2014)

Seán Fleming: If a Department achieves a payroll reduction of €50 million at the end of the year, we have no way of knowing whether that is due to staff retirements or the Haddington Road agreement. There are specific issues in the Haddington Road agreement. Can Mr. Watt give us the breakdown of that €305 million for 2013, the payroll savings in those Departments that were due to the...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 11 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances
Chapter 3 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 4 - Vote Accounting
Chapter 5 - Vote Budget Management (3 Apr 2014)

Seán Fleming: Mr. Watt is making my point. He is explaining that it is complicated in each Department and that there are gross and net figures, savings and estimates. All the more reason for there to be an independent verification. When this committee does its report we should recommend that there be an independent verification mechanism. I would not even have to have this conversation if-----

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 11 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances
Chapter 3 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 4 - Vote Accounting
Chapter 5 - Vote Budget Management (3 Apr 2014)

Seán Fleming: Does Mr. Watt not see any benefit in the independent verification of €1 billion in savings?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 11 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances
Chapter 3 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 4 - Vote Accounting
Chapter 5 - Vote Budget Management (3 Apr 2014)

Seán Fleming: Was the independent verification process of the Croke Park agreement a waste of time and money then? I am missing something.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 11 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances
Chapter 3 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 4 - Vote Accounting
Chapter 5 - Vote Budget Management (3 Apr 2014)

Seán Fleming: I do not know what that means.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 11 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances
Chapter 3 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 4 - Vote Accounting
Chapter 5 - Vote Budget Management (3 Apr 2014)

Seán Fleming: That was all done by the Government before the Croke Park agreement.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 11 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances
Chapter 3 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 4 - Vote Accounting
Chapter 5 - Vote Budget Management (3 Apr 2014)

Seán Fleming: Yes.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 11 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances
Chapter 3 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 4 - Vote Accounting
Chapter 5 - Vote Budget Management (3 Apr 2014)

Seán Fleming: That is not cost verification.