Results 321-340 of 760 for garda speaker:Catherine Connolly

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (11 May 2017)

Catherine Connolly: ..., in a different capacity. I am here as a member of the committee to consider the issue of value for money. Matters arose on the last occasion on which clarification is certainly needed. The Garda Commissioner needs to be given an opportunity to come here. That is the way we should deal with the matter. If we go down the route of saying “misled” and...

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriations Account (Resumed)
Vote 24 - Justice and Equality (Resumed)
Chapter 6 - Procurement and Management of Contracts for Direct Provision (Resumed) (11 May 2017)

Catherine Connolly: I have a number of questions for Mr. Waters. Did the Department of Justice and Equality ever give permission to any garda to open an account, not to mention 50 accounts?

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriations Account (Resumed)
Vote 24 - Justice and Equality (Resumed)
Chapter 6 - Procurement and Management of Contracts for Direct Provision (Resumed) (11 May 2017)

Catherine Connolly: There are a lot of questions I wish to ask on direct provision and other matters, but I have a few quick questions that have arisen. I am not into demonising any organisation. We need An Garda Síochána. We had its representatives and the Department of Justice and Equality before us at the last meeting. Questions for the Department of Justice and Equality and An Garda...

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriations Account (Resumed)
Vote 24 - Justice and Equality (Resumed)
Chapter 6 - Procurement and Management of Contracts for Direct Provision (Resumed) (11 May 2017)

Catherine Connolly: What was necessary before 2005? Did An Garda Síochána have a free hand to open as many accounts as it wished?

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriations Account (Resumed)
Vote 24 - Justice and Equality (Resumed)
Chapter 6 - Procurement and Management of Contracts for Direct Provision (Resumed) (11 May 2017)

Catherine Connolly: ...policy but the policy was forced, every step of the way, because of inhuman conditions. Can he give me a list of recommendations that have not been implemented? One was a diversity champion in An Garda Síochána; another was an annual review. Have they been implemented?

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 20 - Garda Síochána - Internal Audit Report on Garda College, Templemore (4 May 2017)

Catherine Connolly: I welcome the witnesses to the committee. It is a very worthwhile exercise. I believe that most people want to respect the Garda and want to work with it. In my time as a local councillor our biggest problem was getting Governments to realise that more resources should be put into An Garda Síochána in order that it could work with us and we could see community gardaí on the...

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 20 - Garda Síochána - Internal Audit Report on Garda College, Templemore (4 May 2017)

Catherine Connolly: I am not going that road of saying that either. The issue I am putting to Ms O'Sullivan is the question of trust in the Garda Síochána. When this information was published, the Commissioner's immediate comment was there was no misappropriation of money and no misuse of public moneys. Was that not, at the very least, premature?

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 20 - Garda Síochána - Internal Audit Report on Garda College, Templemore (4 May 2017)

Catherine Connolly: I do not agree with the Commissioner. In view of all of the scandals with the Garda Síochána there was an extra onus on the Commissioner at that point to involve an outside agency of the highest integrity to look at it. Looking at this now, it looks like the Garda were trying to find out the extent of it and trying to contain it rather than accepting it was a complete mess that...

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 20 - Garda Síochána - Internal Audit Report on Garda College, Templemore (4 May 2017)

Catherine Connolly: ...on the fact that it was not followed up, which I will revert to. It was a damning report stating that what happened was non-compliant with the regulations at that time, with everything from the Garda Síochána Act 2005 to the obligations under the ethics legislation. Does Ms O'Sullivan accept that?

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 20 - Garda Síochána - Internal Audit Report on Garda College, Templemore (4 May 2017)

Catherine Connolly: There would have been the most serious obligations on it. We are training young gardaí for their role as a trusted member of An Garda Síochána who will deal with domestic violence, serious crime and so on. We want to have faith in An Garda Síochána and be able to call on them. They are being trained in the centre in Templemore where these practices are looked on as...

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 20 - Garda Síochána - Internal Audit Report on Garda College, Templemore (4 May 2017)

Catherine Connolly: ...are looking at the period from 2009 onwards. We are looking at a company that was formed in 1992 and 1993 not way back in the 1960s, 1970s or 1980s. During that period of time, we were attesting gardaí and yet the witnesses from the Garda Síochána are saying that the gardaí had little training in financial matters. Let us look at page dealing with St. Raphael's...

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 20 - Garda Síochána - Internal Audit Report on Garda College, Templemore (4 May 2017)

Catherine Connolly: ...out all this in his report. I refer to page 21. Under the provisions of the Ethics in Public Office Act 1995, officeholders over a certain grade must make certain disclosures and this includes gardaí of the rank of superintendent and above. The second paragraph states that Garda members, including superintendents and chief superintendents, have acted as directors of An Garda...

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 20 - Garda Síochána - Internal Audit Report on Garda College, Templemore (4 May 2017)

Catherine Connolly: ...and then it went back. Nothing happened. We were given a briefing document yesterday about this matter. There is a gap. What were told in the document that we were supplied is that in 2008, An Garda Síochána's finance directorate concluded that there were major concerns. The then Commissioner, Mr. Fachtna Murphy, agreed with the recommendation of the chief administrative...

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 20 - Garda Síochána - Internal Audit Report on Garda College, Templemore (4 May 2017)

Catherine Connolly: We will continue with what he said. He offered the view to the then Commissioner that as the State had not provided money to develop and improve the social and sporting culture of Garda students, the companies and committees identified in the 2008 report were formed as the only means to develop and improve the social and sporting culture of the college. He goes on to say that he further...

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 20 - Garda Síochána - Internal Audit Report on Garda College, Templemore (4 May 2017)

Catherine Connolly: Deputy Commissioner Rice was of the view that this money belonged to the Garda, had nothing to do with the State and was none of its business, and that Governments had failed to fund and resource the Garda; therefore, it was using the money.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 20 - Garda Síochána - Internal Audit Report on Garda College, Templemore (4 May 2017)

Catherine Connolly: Is it a fair conclusion for me to draw that there was a man of a very high rank disagreeing with the Commissioner and saying he was in charge of the college and that this money belonged to An Garda, despite that it had come from the Government originally?

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 20 - Garda Síochána - Internal Audit Report on Garda College, Templemore (4 May 2017)

Catherine Connolly: .... I will finish this question as otherwise I will lose my train of thought. Mr. Kelly went through it forensically and then stopped. When I look back over it, however, I find a big gap. The Garda Commissioner says she is taking this seriously, while the head of the college, a deputy commissioner, says it is their money. There is a big gap. Mr. Kelly has produced a serious report, on...

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 20 - Garda Síochána - Internal Audit Report on Garda College, Templemore (4 May 2017)

Catherine Connolly: ..., trí Ghaeilge, ag cothú muiníne i measc an phobail. Ní féidir muinín a chothú i measc an phobail agus na finnéithe ag freagairt mar seo. It is impossible to say we have confidence in the Garda if this is what is happening even now. This issue dates back to 2006. We have the Commissioner's initial statement which I have quoted minimising the...

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 20 - Garda Síochána - Internal Audit Report on Garda College, Templemore (4 May 2017)

Catherine Connolly: Deputy Commissioner Rice had already expressed an opinion that the money belonged to the Garda and nobody else.

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Garda Investigations (2 May 2017)

Catherine Connolly: 112. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality if she is satisfied that An Garda Síochána is adequately equipped and specifically skilled to carry out investigations into complex cases of fraud and has sufficient resources in place to deal with these types of cases; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19253/17]