Results 4,281-4,300 of 10,120 for speaker:Jim O'Callaghan
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Secretary General of the Department of Health (19 Apr 2023)
Jim O'Callaghan: Mr. Watt is welcome to the Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach. I fully accept that what Mr. Watt did was motivated by public interest but I hope he will also accept that the questions we are putting to him and the reasons we want to question him are also motivated by public interest. Mr. Watt's timing is quite fortuitous and, as he says, the report only...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Secretary General of the Department of Health (19 Apr 2023)
Jim O'Callaghan: Is Mr. Watt aware of why there was a six-month delay in the publication of the report, which is dated 17 October 2022 and which was not published until 17 April 2023?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Secretary General of the Department of Health (19 Apr 2023)
Jim O'Callaghan: I am asking if Mr. Watt is aware of the reason why there was a delay.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Secretary General of the Department of Health (19 Apr 2023)
Jim O'Callaghan: Did Mr. Watt in any way seek to delay its publication?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Secretary General of the Department of Health (19 Apr 2023)
Jim O'Callaghan: When you look at the report it is clear that in February and March 2022 Mr. Watt commenced detailed negotiations with Dr. Holohan about his secondment. Is that not correct?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Secretary General of the Department of Health (19 Apr 2023)
Jim O'Callaghan: Then it was agreed that Dr. Holohan would go off and speak to the third-level institutions on his own. Is that not correct?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Secretary General of the Department of Health (19 Apr 2023)
Jim O'Callaghan: Looking back on it, does Mr. Watt accept that it was not appropriate for the person who was seeking the secondment to be involved in the negotiation about the terms of the secondment?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Secretary General of the Department of Health (19 Apr 2023)
Jim O'Callaghan: Is Mr. Watt aware that in Maura Quinn's report, at page 31, she has effectively criticised that? She has said that no one individual should be personally and exclusively involved in any negotiation with third parties which involves the disbursement of State funds in which they have a potential personal interest. Does Mr. Watt disagree with Ms Quinn?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Secretary General of the Department of Health (19 Apr 2023)
Jim O'Callaghan: Is it not the case that there will be a conflict of interest, however, if a senior civil servant is in negotiations with an intended seconder about the terms of his or her employment?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Secretary General of the Department of Health (19 Apr 2023)
Jim O'Callaghan: Would they agree the terms? Would they negotiate the terms on behalf of-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Secretary General of the Department of Health (19 Apr 2023)
Jim O'Callaghan: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform Circular 27/2021 states that secondments can only be for a maximum of five years, and this one clearly was not to be for that length of time. Was that not taken into account?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Secretary General of the Department of Health (19 Apr 2023)
Jim O'Callaghan: What were the other examples of that type of secondment that were more than five years? Can Mr. Watt give us an example?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Secretary General of the Department of Health (19 Apr 2023)
Jim O'Callaghan: For more than five years?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Secretary General of the Department of Health (19 Apr 2023)
Jim O'Callaghan: Is it common for somebody to be seconded to a university for longer than five years though?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Secretary General of the Department of Health (19 Apr 2023)
Jim O'Callaghan: But not for more than five years.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Secretary General of the Department of Health (19 Apr 2023)
Jim O'Callaghan: Looking at Maura Quinn's report I thought that those secondments were for two and four years, respectively, but maybe I am wrong about that.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Secretary General of the Department of Health (19 Apr 2023)
Jim O'Callaghan: We get to 25 February and Mr. Watt gives his formal support for this. Mr. Watt makes the point that there was an email from Dr. Holohan to the then Secretary General of the Department of the Taoiseach on 24 February. Ultimately a letter of intent was sent to Trinity College Dublin on 16 March and it set out the terms. Am I correct in saying Dr. Holohan wrote that letter of intent, Mr. Watt...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Secretary General of the Department of Health (19 Apr 2023)
Jim O'Callaghan: Was the draft shared with Mr. Fraser?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Secretary General of the Department of Health (19 Apr 2023)
Jim O'Callaghan: There is one significant difference between the email to Mr. Fraser of 24 February and the letter of intent of 16 March and that is the funding. It went from €1 million to €2 million. How did that happen?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Secretary General of the Department of Health (19 Apr 2023)
Jim O'Callaghan: It is stated in the letter of intent that the €2 million would be administered through the HRB. When did the HRB agree to that?