Results 44,301-44,320 of 46,267 for speaker:Simon Harris

Topical Issue Debate: School Curriculum (4 Dec 2013)

Simon Harris: I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Sherlock, for being here. While I put down the idea of developing a leaving certificate course in ICT and computer skills, it is really to generate a broader debate about what we are doing in the schools in terms of providing students with the skill sets they need for the modern economy and for functioning in a society that is becoming ever more...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects Status (4 Dec 2013)

Simon Harris: 55. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills when he expects a new school (details supplied) in County Wicklow to open; when a site for this new school will be confirmed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52161/13]

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects Status (4 Dec 2013)

Simon Harris: 56. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the position regarding the construction of a new school (details supplied) in County Wicklow; the expected completion date for construction; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52162/13]

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources: Broadband Services Provision (4 Dec 2013)

Simon Harris: 89. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he will clarify the terms of the national broadband scheme as offered to consumers; in particular the issues regarding an unlimited data cap; the agreed price of data once the initial threshold is passed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52063/13]

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Enrolments (3 Dec 2013)

Simon Harris: 111. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if his attention has been drawn to the shortage of primary school places in an area (details supplied) in County Wicklow for the school year starting September 2014; the number of parents that have not been offered any school place in the locality; the amount of school places available in the locality; the actions he intends to take and if his...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Animal Welfare (3 Dec 2013)

Simon Harris: 358. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his plans to ban the docking of the tails of dogs-puppies and the removal of the dew nail, considering that both of these practices are banned by the Irish veterinarians body; if he will consider introducing such a ban in animal welfare legislation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51826/13]

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive (27 Nov 2013)

Simon Harris: One would hope not. The scary thing is they are telling an agency auditor they did. This is why we need-----

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive (27 Nov 2013)

Simon Harris: I agree. This is why we need to hear from the chairs of the boards. Some criticism of the HSE has also arisen in Dr. Smith's report regarding the haphazard, or at times slow, way the HSE responded to queries from the Department of Health between 2008 and 2011. Between February 2011 and October 2011 the Department of Health wrote to HSE human resources, HR, on five occasions trying to...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive (27 Nov 2013)

Simon Harris: I accept Dr. Smith's recommendation and I am pleased the HSE accepts it. We are only going back as far as 2011. The Department of Health corresponded with the HSE about the importance of section 38 in complying with public sector pay conditions and on three occasions the HSE did not bother to reply.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive (27 Nov 2013)

Simon Harris: There was significant lapse. I am trying to get inside the mindset. Why was there such a delay? The HSE was waiting for information to come back up the chain.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive (27 Nov 2013)

Simon Harris: The Department of Health wrote to request adherence to the one person one salary principle. One HR section did not respond and the other response was incomplete. I presume we deem this unacceptable.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive (27 Nov 2013)

Simon Harris: Was this for a similar reason?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive (27 Nov 2013)

Simon Harris: If this is the case I accept Mr. O'Brien's evidence before the committee today and there is no need for me to go through several more of the 51 incidences in the report where there were issues regarding the HSE not taking this matter as seriously as it should have.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive (27 Nov 2013)

Simon Harris: I want to understand how Dr. Smith classifies some of the allowances or top-ups, or whatever we wish to call them, in her audit. I will take the example which has been possibly dominating the media. I also adhere to Mr. O'Brien's principle that it is those who purported to allow the allowances occur in the first place who are most culpable. The media has been covering a story with regard...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive (27 Nov 2013)

Simon Harris: This is helpful because as the Chairman and Deputy O'Donnell stated that many of the section 38 agencies provide vital services and many of them depend on significant fund-raising, but we have had weeks of sweetshop funds and car parking fees going to CEOs and officials. I am trying to seek clarity on how a privately funded allowance is defined. Dr. Smith is telling me in the case of the...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive (27 Nov 2013)

Simon Harris: As an auditor, does Dr. Smith accept the representation in some quarters that the privately funded allowance in the National Maternity Hospital has been derived from the treatment of private patients as accurate or inaccurate?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive (27 Nov 2013)

Simon Harris: Perhaps it is something we can take up with the hospital.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive (27 Nov 2013)

Simon Harris: Given that we see so much of each other, it would be nice not to see each other in and around 25 December. I welcome Mr. O'Brien and his team. Dr. Smith has done an impressive body of work which is very helpful to the committee and taxpayer in trying to ascertain what is going on here. I am encouraged by what Mr. O'Brien has said and his determination to deal with the problem and to clean...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive (27 Nov 2013)

Simon Harris: Page 7 of Dr. Smith's report states: In instances whereby senior management salary levels differ from Consolidated Salary Scales, agencies stated that verbal DOH approval had been sought and obtained. However, these discussion/agreements were not documented on DOH files.However, these conversations, if they took place, would have taken place with real live people. Have we tracked down who...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive (27 Nov 2013)

Simon Harris: Does Dr. Smith know who in the Department would have been in a position to sanction such verbal agreement and at what level he or she was at?