Results 5,241-5,260 of 34,616 for speaker:Seán Fleming

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (13 Jun 2019)

Seán Fleming: The Joint Committees on Justice and Equality, and Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach for OPW. We could send it to the two committees.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (13 Jun 2019)

Seán Fleming: We have disposed of it, noted it and moved on.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (13 Jun 2019)

Seán Fleming: Okay.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (13 Jun 2019)

Seán Fleming: The opening sentence of the email to the Committee of Public Accounts states that the following emails and attachments are a submission of evidence regarding major procurement failures by the OPW that have cost the taxpayer significant money. He is saying there are procurement failures by the OPW that have cost the taxpayer money. We cannot ignore the opening sentence. We will write to the...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (13 Jun 2019)

Seán Fleming: This is not within our remit. The individual can take that up with the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, if he chooses to. We will so advise the individual. We are not going there. Correspondence No. 2223C from an individual relates to the financial viability of wind farms in Ireland. This matter is not within the remit of the committee. Is it agreed that we forward...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (13 Jun 2019)

Seán Fleming: We will do so. This issue arises from evidence the Commissioner gave to the committee a few weeks ago.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (13 Jun 2019)

Seán Fleming: We will check the Official Report for the last meeting. Deputy Cullinane was not in attendance and, after a brief discussion, we agreed to hold the matter over. I am informed that we did write to the Minister after the last meeting inquiring as to how the error had arisen. We are not suggesting it was anything deliberate.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (13 Jun 2019)

Seán Fleming: That concludes correspondence to the committee. We will now deal with statements and accounts received since the last meeting. There are five statements and accounts for review, as listed on members' screens. The first is the Public Trustee Account which administers 148 trusts related to activities of the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine, including former Land Commission Trust...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (13 Jun 2019)

Seán Fleming: I will hold over the noting of these accounts of the National Asset Management Agency until next week. Our periodic report includes several recommendations in respect of NAMA which I do not think we have time to get into today. As I am not at all satisfied with the response from NAMA, I will hold over the response from the Minister for Finance to the periodic report. However, if members...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (13 Jun 2019)

Seán Fleming: Has it accepted the reality of the situation?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (13 Jun 2019)

Seán Fleming: We will write to NAMA asking how the issue arose, how it came to light and why it took so long to deal with it.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (13 Jun 2019)

Seán Fleming: The agency's annual report and financial statement for 2018 have been published and laid before the Oireachtas. It records an after-tax profit of €795 million for the year. NAMA is now stating that, subject to market conditions, its projected lifetime surplus is up from €3.3 billion to €4 billion. I had a quick look at the summary and it shows that the agency has...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (13 Jun 2019)

Seán Fleming: We are probably looking at a meeting in the autumn.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (13 Jun 2019)

Seán Fleming: Has the Deputy raised this issue before?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (13 Jun 2019)

Seán Fleming: I ask the Deputy to bear with me. We will hold this topic over until the next meeting because I want to raise it also.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (13 Jun 2019)

Seán Fleming: It was the subject of a recommendation in our periodic report which has been rejected by the Minister and NAMA. They are nearly there, which is fine. However, I am not satisfied and we will hold our ground. NAMA included some wholly unnecessary and gratuitous remarks in its response to the committee, which remarks I reject. I wish to discuss the matter next week. NAMA stated the European...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (13 Jun 2019)

Seán Fleming: The answer NAMA is giving ten years after it was established is that the regulations and the register might capture it, but it will be winding up at that stage. I am asking that this topic be held over because I wish to raise it and I am conscious that the committee has a few things to do in private session. We will return to it because it is very much on my radar. I was going to deal with...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (13 Jun 2019)

Seán Fleming: We will hold it over until next week for discussion. I am holding over the noting of the National Asset Management Agency 2018 accounts. We are not noting them today; we are holding over noting and discussing them until next week. The next item is the Health Service Executive accounts. They received a clear audit opinion, but attention is drawn to the fact that, on the direction of the...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (13 Jun 2019)

Seán Fleming: We will take comments and then ask the Comptroller and Auditor General to respond in more detail.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (13 Jun 2019)

Seán Fleming: I thank the Deputy for highlighting the issue. For the purposes of clarification, I withdraw my usage of the word "fiddled". I want to clarify what I meant when I referred to "fiddled accounts". I will choose my wording more precisely. Speaking as a chartered accountant and Chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts, the accounts, as presented by the HSE, do not present a true and fair...