Results 44,601-44,620 of 46,267 for speaker:Simon Harris

Public Accounts Committee: 2009 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 37 - SKILL Programme (Resumed)
2010 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 41 - Partnership Arrangements in the Health Service
Special Report No. 80 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Administration of National Health and Local Authority Levy Fund (20 Jun 2013)

Simon Harris: I appreciate that and I appreciate Mr. O'Flynn's view that it should be made available to the Comptroller and Auditor General and published. Did SIPTU pay to view report or did it pay for the report?

Public Accounts Committee: 2009 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 37 - SKILL Programme (Resumed)
2010 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 41 - Partnership Arrangements in the Health Service
Special Report No. 80 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Administration of National Health and Local Authority Levy Fund (20 Jun 2013)

Simon Harris: I ask Mr. O'Flynn to excuse my ignorance but I want to tease this out. Did SIPTU pay Mr. Merrigan or Grant Thornton for sight of the report?

Public Accounts Committee: 2009 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 37 - SKILL Programme (Resumed)
2010 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 41 - Partnership Arrangements in the Health Service
Special Report No. 80 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Administration of National Health and Local Authority Levy Fund (20 Jun 2013)

Simon Harris: That sounds to me like a very bizarre arrangement but I take Mr. O'Flynn's word. Has Mr. O'Flynn seen the report?

Public Accounts Committee: 2009 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 37 - SKILL Programme (Resumed)
2010 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 41 - Partnership Arrangements in the Health Service
Special Report No. 80 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Administration of National Health and Local Authority Levy Fund (20 Jun 2013)

Simon Harris: Has Mr. O'Flynn seen it?

Public Accounts Committee: 2009 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 37 - SKILL Programme (Resumed)
2010 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 41 - Partnership Arrangements in the Health Service
Special Report No. 80 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Administration of National Health and Local Authority Levy Fund (20 Jun 2013)

Simon Harris: I refer now to the Comptroller and Auditor General's report, section 3.12. A sample of 56 individual payees with payments to the value of €370,000 were selected for confirmation of the amounts paid. As the payment records show only the names of the payees, the inspection team forwarded a list of payees to SIPTU and requested that it assist with the supply of addresses, where...

Public Accounts Committee: 2009 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 37 - SKILL Programme (Resumed)
2010 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 41 - Partnership Arrangements in the Health Service
Special Report No. 80 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Administration of National Health and Local Authority Levy Fund (20 Jun 2013)

Simon Harris: I thank Mr. O'Flynn for being here today. I concur with the comments of Deputy Nolan in thanking him and SIPTU for participating in the committee. Others have to come before it who do not want to do so. He was eager to do so and we very much appreciate that. We have talked about this for a long time over a large number of meetings. I have read widely on the issue. I take and accept...

Public Accounts Committee: 2009 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 37 - SKILL Programme (Resumed)
2010 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 41 - Partnership Arrangements in the Health Service
Special Report No. 80 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Administration of National Health and Local Authority Levy Fund (20 Jun 2013)

Simon Harris: I thank Mr. O'Flynn. It is very helpful to put it on the record. There has been tit-for-tat between the HSE and SIPTU for quite a while. We have some very serious questions to ask the HSE when it comes before us. We now know the money did not go to SIPTU; I take that as accepted. Did the HSE believe the money was going to SIPTU?

Public Accounts Committee: 2009 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 37 - SKILL Programme (Resumed)
2010 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 41 - Partnership Arrangements in the Health Service
Special Report No. 80 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Administration of National Health and Local Authority Levy Fund (20 Jun 2013)

Simon Harris: I accept that. I would prefer to put a question to Mr. Merrigan, but he is not here. Would it be the view of Mr. O'Flynn that Mr Merrigan gave the impression to the HSE or relevant agencies that he was putting this money into a SIPTU account? Was it the view of the public agencies providing funding that the money was going to a SIPTU account?

Public Accounts Committee: 2009 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 37 - SKILL Programme (Resumed)
2010 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 41 - Partnership Arrangements in the Health Service
Special Report No. 80 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Administration of National Health and Local Authority Levy Fund (20 Jun 2013)

Simon Harris: What was Mr. Merrigan's day job?

Public Accounts Committee: 2009 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 37 - SKILL Programme (Resumed)
2010 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 41 - Partnership Arrangements in the Health Service
Special Report No. 80 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Administration of National Health and Local Authority Levy Fund (20 Jun 2013)

Simon Harris: I want to expand on a point one of my colleagues touched on. We know, a statement of fact, that he went to New York in March 2004, January 2005, March 2006, February and November 2007, with his spouse, Savannah in March 2008, Brisbane in October 2008 and New York in March and June 2009. We think it likely, based on the Comptroller and Auditor General's uncovering of additional trips, that...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (20 Jun 2013)

Simon Harris: I thank the Comptroller and Auditor General for that. I understand the rules. I might have missed it but the committee did agree that it would pursue the relevant Departments and Accounting Officers who were giving grant aid without the proper checks and balances.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (20 Jun 2013)

Simon Harris: I return to the point Deputy Paschal Donohoe made. While this meeting was alluded to by Ms Moylan when she appeared before the committee, this is the first time that we have seen the minutes of the meeting, or the notes arising from it. It is likely we will need to hear from Ms Moylan again. I am extremely concerned that Ms Moylan, who is the most senior planning official in the Department...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (20 Jun 2013)

Simon Harris: I agree with the proposal of Deputies Sean Fleming and Donohoe. In correspondence to the HSE, I would like to ask about the review mechanisms used. We have come across the HSE reviewing those with terminal illnesses in respect of their eligibility for medical cards. They are obviously not applying the same level of review to the funds paid to GPs if there is inactivity and the GP is still...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (20 Jun 2013)

Simon Harris: I read the letter from the solicitors of Mr. FitzPatrick. It mentions trusting that we will understand his position but I do not understand his position. However, not being legally qualified, I wonder if the committee can seek legal opinion on this. When we set out on this inquiry, we envisaged this potential problem with people not wishing to appear before the committee or saying they are...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Data Retention (19 Jun 2013)

Simon Harris: 219. To ask the Minister for Health the steps being taken to ensure the continued preservation of guthrie cards that have the potential to provide a life-saving genetic diagnosis to at-risk family members of young sudden cardiac death victims following his decision to halt the destruction of the cards last March; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29581/13]

Public Accounts Committee: Statement by Chairman (13 Jun 2013)

Simon Harris: I do not have a difficulty with the assurance and the issue of the leaking is fine. They are separate issues to those which the Chairman has dealt with. It is very important to state as a Government member of the committee that if we want to explore this more it is very clear to anybody looking from the outside in and to colleagues on the committee, that Government members of the committee...

Public Accounts Committee: Statement by Chairman (13 Jun 2013)

Simon Harris: I attach my name to that too.

Public Accounts Committee: Statement by Chairman (13 Jun 2013)

Simon Harris: I have read the Department of Finance Circular 6/1959, which states "[w]here a member of the Government travels either as a representative of the Government or on the business of his Department and he decides that it is necessary in the public interest that he should be accompanied by his wife" - I presume that should also include "husband" but perhaps it was a sign of the times - "for the...

Public Accounts Committee: Statement by Chairman (13 Jun 2013)

Simon Harris: Correct, but I am concerned with the trip in respect of which the Chairman has been unable to give us information. He made an impassioned contribution but during 2008, the only full year in which he was a Minister of State, a parliamentary question on foreign and domestic travel and subsistence claims by individual Ministers or Ministers of State indicates, to the best of my knowledge, that...

Public Accounts Committee: Statement by Chairman (13 Jun 2013)

Simon Harris: I studied them all.