Results 4,081-4,100 of 7,126 for speaker:Alan Farrell

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 21 - Prisons (17 Jan 2019)

Alan Farrell: Who has oversight of that process other than the service's line committee? Does the Minister have oversight? Is there a feed-in process? Is what should and should not be disclosed discussed?

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 21 - Prisons (17 Jan 2019)

Alan Farrell: I thank Ms McCaffrey. She touched upon the financial control issue in terms of procurement. There was a report on other operations of the service in, I believe, 2015. I am sorry, as I had the information in front of me a moment ago. The report was commissioned internally regarding the operation of various funds and programmes within the Irish Prison Service and a review was conducted. I...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 21 - Prisons (17 Jan 2019)

Alan Farrell: Please, do.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 21 - Prisons (17 Jan 2019)

Alan Farrell: It was important to say. Anything that improves financial controls is to be welcomed. For the want of a better description, the Prison Service effectively operates a bank for members of the public who are incarcerated. Is the administration of that a process-heavy operation? The service must have an effective computer system. Could Ms McCaffrey provide some information on it, please?...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 21 - Prisons (17 Jan 2019)

Alan Farrell: How many people are responsible for the operation of this facility?

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 21 - Prisons (17 Jan 2019)

Alan Farrell: Are whole-time equivalent staff working on it? Is it a full-time job or just something that needs to be-----

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 21 - Prisons (17 Jan 2019)

Alan Farrell: That would be helpful. I recognise that it is an essential function that must be provided. I imagine it would be almost impossible to do it in any other manner. Despite the insignificance of the sum, the figure for the management of petty cash jumped out at me. It was minuscule at approximately €1,000 or something along those lines. Is it recognised that there are improvements...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 21 - Prisons (17 Jan 2019)

Alan Farrell: It is an insignificant sum, but at the same time cumulatively it is not great to see a small amount of cash not being accounted for appropriately. Whether it has been misplaced, lost, spent or not recorded properly is not really the point. I would like to ask about the tuck shop. How am I doing for time? Do I have five minutes left?

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 21 - Prisons (17 Jan 2019)

Alan Farrell: Grand. Perfect. This question is rather appropriate in the context of prisoners' injury and compensation claims. How does our figure of approximately 5% benchmark against other prison services, to the best of Ms McCaffrey's knowledge? In her opening statement, she gave us figures on absenteeism which appear to benchmark relatively well against other countries. While I welcome that, it...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 21 - Prisons (17 Jan 2019)

Alan Farrell: Okay. The ratio of the cost of legal services to the level of compensation payments - it is roughly 2:1 - is a very common theme across a lot of Government Departments. Is there a manner in which that figure can be reduced? Is the Prison Service talking about the volume of individual claimants who are dealt with individually? I ask Ms McCaffrey to comment on that.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 21 - Prisons (17 Jan 2019)

Alan Farrell: Members of the public made 37 claims against the Prison Service in 2017. I presume there is a good chance that most of them have been resolved by now. What would the nature of those claims be?

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 21 - Prisons (17 Jan 2019)

Alan Farrell: Sure.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 21 - Prisons (17 Jan 2019)

Alan Farrell: I have two more questions, the first of which relates to the training of Prison Service personnel. I assume training in things like avoidance techniques, tactics and self-defence is provided. Is it provided by external service providers or in-house? Perhaps both forms of training are provided. I appreciate that Ms McCaffrey only took up her position on 13 December last. Does she believe...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 21 - Prisons (17 Jan 2019)

Alan Farrell: I was referring more to continuous professional development.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 21 - Prisons (17 Jan 2019)

Alan Farrell: By its very nature, it is value for money-orientated. Are any elements of staff training and continuous professional development not being provided in-house? Is the Prison Service changing the way it is delivered in order to provide everything that is required?

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 21 - Prisons (17 Jan 2019)

Alan Farrell: Okay.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 21 - Prisons (17 Jan 2019)

Alan Farrell: I am out of time. My final question relates to mental health support services for prison officers and for Prison Service staff in general. Human nature determines that stresses in the workplace go beyond the workplace and extend to people who do not work within the Prison Service. Given the nature of the work, does Ms McCaffrey think it would be appropriate for the Prison Service to...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 21 - Prisons (17 Jan 2019)

Alan Farrell: We might refer to that later if possible.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 21 - Prisons (17 Jan 2019)

Alan Farrell: I apologise to the Chair for going over time.

Written Answers — Department of Defence: Defence Forces Deployment (17 Jan 2019)

Alan Farrell: 16. To ask the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence the breakdown of Defence Forces personnel on deployment abroad or on secondment; the details of each mission in 2018; the projected mission of each for 2019; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1809/19]