Results 41-60 of 70 for at segment:8902418

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: Inland Fisheries Ireland (25 Apr 2024)

Dr. Cathal Gallagher: One of the focuses of that particular area is this index catchment. It one of the national salmonid index catchment areas. Since the 1980s, we have had facilities there to trap, count and look at all the fish. We also have that whole catchment now indexed for other research programmes so we are looking at the climate changes. It is a very natural catchment with a...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: Inland Fisheries Ireland (25 Apr 2024)

Ms Suzanne Campion: Everything bar that one policy I mentioned at the end.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: Inland Fisheries Ireland (25 Apr 2024)

Sitting suspended at 11 a.m. and resumed at 11.10 a.m.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: Inland Fisheries Ireland (25 Apr 2024)

Ms Suzanne Campion: I am sorry, I absolutely thought these were dealt with at the previous committee meeting because nothing has changed since then. We did not assign any administrative costs in IFI to the delivery of the scheme. They were basically subsumed into our ordinary day-to-day operations. The money was all spent on the actual schemes themselves.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: Inland Fisheries Ireland (25 Apr 2024)

Ms Suzanne Campion: We had awarded €50,000 towards that particular programme. I think €21,800 was drawn down by one organisation and the other organisation that was awarded funding did not draw down at all; it refused the money.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: Inland Fisheries Ireland (25 Apr 2024)

Catherine Murphy: Dr. Gallagher is obviously there the longest on a consistent basis. In terms of both he and Ms Campion coming in at a time when there was a crisis, what were their impressions of the organisation at that stage, before a lot of the issues came to light? Were issues being raised? Were people concerned? I refer to the issue with the vehicles. At that stage, had doubts emerged about the...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: Inland Fisheries Ireland (25 Apr 2024)

Mr. Seamus McCarthy: I think any of the issues that are there do not generally stretch back to 2014. Obviously, there were issues relating to the dormant accounts funding and so on, which seem to have gone back to about 2018 or 2019. While moneys were allocated, the drawdown seems to have been later. Again, in the period of 2020, Covid was obviously a factor there. For some reason, a...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: Inland Fisheries Ireland (25 Apr 2024)

Catherine Murphy: I presume Ms Campion has that on some sort of chart. I refer to the recommendations of the senior counsel, Ernst & Young, the internal audit, and how they would be worked into the organisation. Could she give us an indication of where each of those recommendations is at?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: Inland Fisheries Ireland (25 Apr 2024)

Ms Suzanne Campion: Is the Cathaoirleach looking at the graph in-----

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: Inland Fisheries Ireland (25 Apr 2024)

Ms Suzanne Campion: Our overall budget includes capital, if we are looking at €34 million for 2021.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: Inland Fisheries Ireland (25 Apr 2024)

Ms Suzanne Campion: In terms of the increase from €27 million to €34 million between 2021 and 2022, the Department withdrew close to €5 million from us at the end of 2021 because we were holding cash in our bank balances. That is reflected in the €27,000 in drawdown. Therefore, in effect, the difference is €2 million year-on-year.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: Inland Fisheries Ireland (25 Apr 2024)

Ms Paula Byrne: I had a quick look at third level courses at all levels between 2018 and 2024 and the total I got is €198,320. That was courses for 52 people between-----

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: Inland Fisheries Ireland (25 Apr 2024)

Brian Stanley: There is a course fee listed at the end of each one. The courses range from €14,800 down along. There are a number of fees of approximately €14,000. They start from €390.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: Inland Fisheries Ireland (25 Apr 2024)

Ms Paula Byrne: At a cursory look at the list the Cathaoirleach has, yes, I think so.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: Inland Fisheries Ireland (25 Apr 2024)

Dr. Cathal Gallagher: -----will see the benefit of that is in years to come. What we have been trying to do at all grades in the operation is to increase the capabilities with regard to management and governance. Those projects are related to that. Much of the work over the period - I am 20 years in the service - has changed a lot. What is expected of people now is different from what...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: Inland Fisheries Ireland (25 Apr 2024)

Brian Stanley: I understand that. It will be accepted that regulations change, not just in respect of environmental matters and water quality and so forth, but also around a range of other things. The point I am making is that we have a situation whereby 52 people at middle or senior management level undertook courses and yet during the very same years IFI was landed with the jackpot in terms of-----

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: Inland Fisheries Ireland (25 Apr 2024)

Brian Stanley: Do I assume they are at a higher level?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: Inland Fisheries Ireland (25 Apr 2024)

Brian Stanley: They arose because of bad practice at a higher level.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: Inland Fisheries Ireland (25 Apr 2024)

...a review of learning and development. One of the things IFI needs to develop is the particular skill sets against the different grades and to have the courses, training or internal training on whatever topics. I am from a different sector but governance has added a significant burden for everybody. There needs to be particular training per grade in the organisation, particularly with a...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: Inland Fisheries Ireland (25 Apr 2024)

Dr. Cathal Gallagher: We have made a couple of arguments over recent years based on our previous corporate plan, which runs until 2025, and on a request to take on additional functions and roles. Our current plan under the new strategy is, as I mentioned earlier on, to look at where we and the board believe we should focus our resources. We intend to do further work this year and to...