Results 21-40 of 5,117 for at speaker:Catherine Murphy

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (13 Jun 2024)

Catherine Murphy: A meeting with the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board might be another item for the schedule at that stage.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (30 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: Why would you not be cracking the whip at this stage? Why would you not be withholding money? This is absolutely scandalous. An additional €512 million has been put in to complete this hospital. Mr. Gunning is telling us that the things that are adding to the cost are the delays. Why would you not use that lever of withholding payment to more or less get the contractor to crack...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (30 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: I go back to the issue of substantial completion. At the engagement last time, the board could not get a date for substantial completion. Was funding actually withheld at that stage?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (30 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: We are back at the same point again. It is kind of Groundhog Day-----

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (30 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: In terms of the liquidated loss in this case, we know the project was to be substantially complete and handed over by November 2022. That is not going to happen until 2025. That is what the board will be looking at in terms of an adjudication it thinks will be challenged.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (30 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: Has that been quantified, per week, at this stage?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (30 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: How many of them have been closed off at this stage?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (30 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: It seems like 4,000 out of 5,560, and even at that there are 1,500 that have not got to the threshold that are completed. There are 4,000 rooms where there is still quite considerable work outstanding, even if it is only 10% or 15% of the work. Is February of next year optimistic?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (30 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: We are talking about the 2022 accounts. It is now 2024, not that we should toast that fact. Note 2 in the report by the Comptroller and Auditor General states that at the end of 2022, the amount involved was €1.24 billion. Note 8 indicates further capital commitments of €217 million. We know that €40 million was allocated to get the board through that Christmas. Why...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (30 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: I know. There has to be an opportunity to challenge that. Mr. Quinn is talking about this tendering process being Europe-wide. If there is a significant flaw or a way that people can actually work or warp it to their advantage by the way they exploit loopholes or are very litigious, surely, that has to be challenged, even at European level. Have other countries looked at that? Is there...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (30 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: I predict we are going to be repeating these mistakes, including in the building of the new national maternity hospital in the wrong place. While that is a completely different matter, when you look at the census of population and the demographics, babies are being born on the other side of the city, on the west side of Dublin and the M50, where the demographics suggest that a maternity...

Business Support Package: Statements (23 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate. One of the things business people will tell you is about the high input costs, including, for example, energy. We have some of the highest energy costs in Europe. It depends on the particular business but they will tell you about insurance costs. They will all talk about them but some businesses are particularly impacted by it. The...

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 35 - Army Pensions
Vote 36 - Defence
Report on the Accounts of the Public Services 2022
Chapter 12: Stock Management in the Defence Forces (23 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: This abuse happened under the watch of the senior command. The loss of personnel – we are still losing personnel in the Army – happened under the command structure we still have. There is, or at least there was, a problem in that people feel they cannot bring things to the attention of the senior command.

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 35 - Army Pensions
Vote 36 - Defence
Report on the Accounts of the Public Services 2022
Chapter 12: Stock Management in the Defence Forces (23 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: On injuries, the State Claims Agency frequently appears before the committee. We look at the range of different areas. Obviously, in the Defence Forces people are doing dangerous work.

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 35 - Army Pensions
Vote 36 - Defence
Report on the Accounts of the Public Services 2022
Chapter 12: Stock Management in the Defence Forces (23 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: You try to minimise injuries, and worse. What is the profile at the moment in terms of injuries? Is the rate increasing? What is the Department doing to mitigate that?

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 35 - Army Pensions
Vote 36 - Defence
Report on the Accounts of the Public Services 2022
Chapter 12: Stock Management in the Defence Forces (23 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: I am not at all clear about who makes the decision.

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 35 - Army Pensions
Vote 36 - Defence
Report on the Accounts of the Public Services 2022
Chapter 12: Stock Management in the Defence Forces (23 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: Is that being looked at? People look at risk in terms of where they are going to work and how they will be looked at afterwards if something happens. Is that looked at in the totality of when people are being recruited and the attractiveness of people being recruited into the Defence Forces?

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 35 - Army Pensions
Vote 36 - Defence
Report on the Accounts of the Public Services 2022
Chapter 12: Stock Management in the Defence Forces (23 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: ...for him. How do the Defence Forces hold on to people? It is not just about pay and conditions; it is also about living conditions. Somebody has to be directly accountable. We leave our colours at the door here in terms of politics when people come into the Committee of Public Accounts but then we have somebody who is directly accountable for that kind of waste of public money. There...

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 35 - Army Pensions
Vote 36 - Defence
Report on the Accounts of the Public Services 2022
Chapter 12: Stock Management in the Defence Forces (23 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: In terms of risk assessment, obviously, we are an island and the Naval Service is very important from that point of view. We have had some very high-profile drug seizures that required oversight. Certainly, one of them appears not to have been intelligence-led but was kind of fortunate. The other thing is that there has been activity in terms of Russian submarines in Irish waters, or...

Dentistry Services: Motion (22 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: I will read back to the Minister of State one line that he read. He stated: The HSE public dental service also provides oral examination and treatment identified as necessary for children at three intervals, at ages six to eight years, 11 to 16 years and subject to capacity, nine to 11 years. Why are we hearing from parents and on the doors that children in certain locations have never...