Results 6,061-6,080 of 9,443 for speaker:Verona Murphy

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Verona Murphy: I understand the Accounting Officer is responsible but what I am asking is what Mr. Moloney benchmarks the Accounting Officer's report against when he has sight of it. Does he benchmark it against other countries or against the private sector delivering a three-bedroom house over a county council or social housing project? What does he use?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Verona Murphy: I will give a specific instance that comes to mind and relates to the housing assistance payment, HAP, on which we have an extravagant spend. I know it is the system we have and without extra supply, we are not going to overcome it. Would Mr. Moloney believe that several people have contacted me pointing out that the housing assistance department in Limerick has been writing to them on a...

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Verona Murphy: As a public representative, I have engaged with HAP and I have got nowhere. How would the Department identify that? I do not know how many cases of this there are. It is clearly a huge waste of money on postage. Somebody is clearly not doing, or does not understand their job, because if they are supposed to be stopping the tenant's housing assistance payment and it never happens, how is...

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Verona Murphy: Is that kind of wastage within Mr. Moloney's remit?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Verona Murphy: It is either in Mr. Moloney's remit or it is of interest. It is of interest to us all to save money.

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Verona Murphy: Would Mr. Moloney consider asking the Accounting Officer in that Department what the story is with that?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Verona Murphy: Will Mr. Moloney then come back to the committee on this because it is ongoing in a number of cases to the point that it is becoming a waste of my time. I have failed to get a response on it. How many employees are in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Verona Murphy: What does it cost to run the Department annually?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Verona Murphy: Did the Department of Finance save €50 million when it was decided to split the Departments and create the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform? Was €50 million saved?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Verona Murphy: Not to interrupt Mr. Moloney, but my focus is on whether the Department is value for money. I have read a huge amount in preparation for this committee meeting and many of my colleagues and I are of the opinion it is time to reintegrate the two Departments. The 650 employees at the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform could probably be put to much better use. Mr. Moloney previously...

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Verona Murphy: What have the savings been?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Verona Murphy: At a cost.

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Verona Murphy: How much are they?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Verona Murphy: That is the target, over how many years?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Verona Murphy: The Department has been established for ten years. A cost of €50 million per annum is €500 million. It has saved €500 million so there are no real savings, are there?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Verona Murphy: That €500 million is annual. I was asking whether it was annual. If it is €500 million, can Mr. Moloney show me on paper where the savings are made? I ask him to submit documentation to the committee showing where all those savings were made in 2021.

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Verona Murphy: That is grand.

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Verona Murphy: Deputy O'Connor undoubtedly did not receive an answer to his question from Mr. Moloney.

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Verona Murphy: From the time that it was first intimated that there would be a ring road in Galway, the project has cost in excess of €20 million. It cost that much for plans and for everybody to have their say but we have nothing except that a defunct organisation called An Bord Pleanála overturned the decision. Last week, I made a speech in the Dáil about regulation and regulation has...

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Verona Murphy: It is interesting that the Secretary General said that the concerns "will be addressed". An Bord Pleanála has not been disbanded. Every project in the country has been held up whether it is private planning, infrastructural planning and national infrastructure projects. We cannot do anything.