Results 4,501-4,520 of 10,790 for speaker:Matt Carthy

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth
Chapter 13 - Guardian Ad Litem Follow-up Report (27 Oct 2022)

Matt Carthy: Who is the assistant secretary?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth
Chapter 13 - Guardian Ad Litem Follow-up Report (27 Oct 2022)

Matt Carthy: There is a question I have been asking for a number of years and I have never got a satisfactory response, namely, what is the specific role of intermediaries? In the first instance, is that the term the Department uses? My understanding is that there are private companies which essentially source accommodation, whether that be hotels or private properties, on behalf of the Department for...

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth
Chapter 13 - Guardian Ad Litem Follow-up Report (27 Oct 2022)

Matt Carthy: How much have we paid them in, say, 2021 and what is the expected outturn in 2022?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth
Chapter 13 - Guardian Ad Litem Follow-up Report (27 Oct 2022)

Matt Carthy: I am looking specifically for how much we pay for that type of work.

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth
Chapter 13 - Guardian Ad Litem Follow-up Report (27 Oct 2022)

Matt Carthy: Generally, if a hotel contacts the Department directly and enters into an agreement, it gets paid a set rate per night, per individual. I presume that depends on the location, or is it the same in Dublin as on the west coast?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth
Chapter 13 - Guardian Ad Litem Follow-up Report (27 Oct 2022)

Matt Carthy: In an instance where an intermediary is used, they agree a price with the Department and they then pay the hotel out of what they get.

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth
Chapter 13 - Guardian Ad Litem Follow-up Report (27 Oct 2022)

Matt Carthy: The Department does not have an interaction in terms of what the hotel is actually getting paid.

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth
Chapter 13 - Guardian Ad Litem Follow-up Report (27 Oct 2022)

Matt Carthy: I can never get my head around why we need an intermediary in some instances.

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth
Chapter 13 - Guardian Ad Litem Follow-up Report (27 Oct 2022)

Matt Carthy: Some hotel owners do not watch the news. Is that it?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth
Chapter 13 - Guardian Ad Litem Follow-up Report (27 Oct 2022)

Matt Carthy: The Department is essentially still paying the intermediary but it is paying on a per room, per night basis. Does Ms Baxter have a notion off the top of her head as to what the skim would be or what percentage of that would go to the intermediary?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth
Chapter 13 - Guardian Ad Litem Follow-up Report (27 Oct 2022)

Matt Carthy: Have we never thought to examine that to see if we are getting value for money?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth
Chapter 13 - Guardian Ad Litem Follow-up Report (27 Oct 2022)

Matt Carthy: If I am correct, we do not know precisely, or this committee does not know because the information is not available to us today, how much we are paying intermediaries and we do not know what proportion of what we are paying them is actually being retained by the intermediaries. Is that the evidence we are receiving?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth
Chapter 13 - Guardian Ad Litem Follow-up Report (27 Oct 2022)

Matt Carthy: I am told that in some parts of the country, if I have accommodation and I want to offer it or utilise it for international protection housing, the only way I am going to get into that business, for want of a better term, is through an intermediary.

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth
Chapter 13 - Guardian Ad Litem Follow-up Report (27 Oct 2022)

Matt Carthy: That is the Department's preference. How low does that go? We have been talking about hotels. Are we also talking about guesthouses and single dwellings?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth
Chapter 13 - Guardian Ad Litem Follow-up Report (27 Oct 2022)

Matt Carthy: Would intermediaries take on single dwellings?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth
Chapter 13 - Guardian Ad Litem Follow-up Report (27 Oct 2022)

Matt Carthy: Ms Baxter is not aware that any single dwellings would be used by intermediaries for such housing.

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth
Chapter 13 - Guardian Ad Litem Follow-up Report (27 Oct 2022)

Matt Carthy: By “complex”, does Ms Baxter mean an owner of multiple properties or would the houses have to be literally adjacent to each other?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth
Chapter 13 - Guardian Ad Litem Follow-up Report (27 Oct 2022)

Matt Carthy: That is interesting. It would be very helpful if we could be supplied with the payments that have been made directly to intermediaries and kept by intermediaries. I might come back to this later.

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth
Chapter 13 - Guardian Ad Litem Follow-up Report (27 Oct 2022)

Matt Carthy: I wish to return to the issue of intermediaries and their role in housing people seeking international protection. How many intermediaries does the Department have engagements with currently?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth
Chapter 13 - Guardian Ad Litem Follow-up Report (27 Oct 2022)

Matt Carthy: I am coming to that. This is just so that we can get a picture. How many properties – hotels, guest houses and individual dwellings – are involved?