Results 3,741-3,760 of 34,585 for speaker:Seán Fleming

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospital Waiting Lists (8 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: 294. To ask the Minister for Health when a person (details supplied) will be admitted to hospital; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41001/19]

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (3 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: We are joined by the Comptroller and Auditor General, Mr. Seamus McCarthy, who is a permanent witness at the committee. He is joined by Ms Orla Duane, deputy director of audit. Apologies have been received from Deputy Shane Cassells. Are the minutes of 19 September agreed? Agreed. No matters arise from those minutes. We shall now deal with correspondence. There are three...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (3 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: It was a summary.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (3 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: CervicalCheck was not on the risk register for the HSE until the court case.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (3 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: It is not scheduled yet. There are two points we need to take up on the two different topics. One, what it calls occasional staff. The university says that most of them are postgraduates. We are going to ask about the 1,394 figure it gave and how many of those are in receipt of payment for more than one year, two years, three years and four years? If we find 95% of them were...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (3 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: However, if we find in that bracket that there are some people on that arrangement year in, year out, that is the issue we need to examine.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (3 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: Finding out how long each of those have been in receipt of an occasional arrangement will give us an indication how many are permanently on it. Following up on Deputy Catherine Murphy’s point, the university said it will affect its capacity for research and knowledge transfer. We want the university to give us an information note on the research and knowledge transfer activity for...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (3 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: It is something we will keep an eye on. We can ask the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform about this as I assume it sets the policy in this regard.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (3 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: We have agreed that. The first thing is the three years and what it said in its governance statement in the annual accounts. If it gets a transcript of this discussion, it will understand why we are asking these questions.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (3 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: No. 2410B is from Mr. Pat Meehan, chief executive, National Oil Reserves Agency, NORA, dated 25 September 2019, replying to our request for an information note on the agency's compliance with the EU's oil stocks directive. We were referring to the Brexit situation. It gives an indication of how much oil is held in the State. When we wrote to the agency, two thirds was in the State and...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (3 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: If there is a large cash balance sitting on the balance sheet-----

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (3 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: Does the Comptroller and Auditor General know whether NORA has the facility to make a dividend payment to the State? He might not know. I am putting him on the spot. Some of the other semi-states are able to transfer money back to the State. If the Comptroller and Auditor General does not know the answer straight up, that is fine.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (3 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: Okay.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (3 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: We will ask the Comptroller and Auditor General to give us an update next week.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (3 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: Then we can decide whether to put it on the work programme. We will not set a date. The Comptroller and Auditor General might be in a position to answer these questions next week when he has looked at the accounts. If we need to bring NORA in, we can put it on the work programme on a provisional basis.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (3 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: No.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (3 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: Yes.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (3 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: They have dealt with that. We asked about that in the letter. They informed us that most of the stock in Ireland is retained in Ringsend and Tarbert and that negotiations are ongoing in relation to a further facility, the refurbishment of which is subject to a commercial contract. This would enable NORA to add another 55,000 tonnes, which is not a big amount in its terms, to its stocks in...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (3 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: We will put it provisionally on the work programme for now. We will ask the Comptroller and Auditor General to give us an update for next week. It goes without saying that we will note and publish the correspondence. The next item of correspondence is from Mr. William Beausang, who is an assistant secretary in the Department of Education and Skills, and is dated 18 September 2019. It...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (3 Oct 2019)

Seán Fleming: Having looked at the letter, my view is that it has parked everything to which the Deputy has been referring. The matter has just been parked.