Results 5,481-5,500 of 34,616 for speaker:Seán Fleming

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (30 May 2019)

Seán Fleming: No, not with that. On the capacity issue, we will try to bring our periodic report to cover the period up to the end of March. Aside from the major issues, whether it is broadband or the paediatric hospital, which we had been dealing with prior to that, the more recent meetings will fall to be completed over the summer for a periodic report, if we are back in September. We will generally...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2017
Chapter 22 - Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (30 May 2019)

Seán Fleming: Today we are dealing with appropriation accounts for 2017, Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance, and the finance accounts for 2017. We are also dealing with the Comptroller and Auditor Generals report for 2017, chapter 1, which deals with the Exchequer financial outturn for 2017, and Chapter 22, the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council. We are also dealing with the Comptroller and Auditor...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2017
Chapter 22 - Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (30 May 2019)

Seán Fleming: Thank you. I call Deputy Burke.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2017
Chapter 22 - Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (30 May 2019)

Seán Fleming: Will that figure give the position at the end of December 2018?

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2017
Chapter 22 - Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (30 May 2019)

Seán Fleming: Deputy McSharry is next.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2017
Chapter 22 - Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (30 May 2019)

Seán Fleming: Is the Department of Finance a party to the case?

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2017
Chapter 22 - Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (30 May 2019)

Seán Fleming: The Department of Finance.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2017
Chapter 22 - Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (30 May 2019)

Seán Fleming: The legal proceedings were initiated before that meeting.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2017
Chapter 22 - Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (30 May 2019)

Seán Fleming: Is the Department operating within the special legislation?

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2017
Chapter 22 - Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (30 May 2019)

Seán Fleming: It is not normal, company law.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2017
Chapter 22 - Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (30 May 2019)

Seán Fleming: Pardon.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2017
Chapter 22 - Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (30 May 2019)

Seán Fleming: Who did that? Was it the Oireachtas?

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2017
Chapter 22 - Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (30 May 2019)

Seán Fleming: No. I would like to make one observation on that. It was rushed legislation and it does not provide for this. It is the law, but maybe it is something we or someone else in the Oireachtas will have to discuss.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2017
Chapter 22 - Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (30 May 2019)

Seán Fleming: Probably what is being looked at here is that the legislation does not provide for a committee of inspection. The special liquidation passed by the Oireachtas was a major issue. The Department of Finance effectively stated that it would adopt a hands-on approach with this legislation and appoint a special liquidator, the Minister appointed him on 7 February 2013 and he commenced work a...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2017
Chapter 22 - Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (30 May 2019)

Seán Fleming: I would have stated on the previous occasion that I was shocked to hear how few were on the case now. Mr. Moran told us the Department had eight or nine staff when it started, but we are down to two staff now. Given the scale of this issue, we would expect the same level of scrutiny in this case by the Department as if it was done through the Companies Act in respect of a committee of...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2017
Chapter 22 - Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (30 May 2019)

Seán Fleming: It is not what one calls it. The usual practice is to use the Companies Act. We are aware the Oireachtas did something different here. The Oireachtas was probably entitled to believe that, because of the special circumstance, we would have the normal level of scrutiny but we would not call it a committee of inspection. I do not feel we have that. That is my observation. It is not a...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2017
Chapter 22 - Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (30 May 2019)

Seán Fleming: Mr. Moran can understand the point. He can understand the level of public frustration due to the lack of knowledge on where we are at.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2017
Chapter 22 - Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (30 May 2019)

Seán Fleming: It was unable to do that.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2017
Chapter 22 - Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (30 May 2019)

Seán Fleming: Okay. I call Deputy Catherine Murphy.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2017
Chapter 22 - Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (30 May 2019)

Seán Fleming: Will that require legislation?