Results 6,761-6,780 of 20,763 for speaker:Alan Kelly

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (7 Mar 2019)

Alan Kelly: Wait for one second. According to what the Chair said-----

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (7 Mar 2019)

Alan Kelly: -----we cannot ask him questions any day where his Secretary General decides that person does not have to come to the meeting. That is not right. There is something wrong in the rules if that is the interpretation. We are going to have to change the rules because that is not transparency. I know Mr. Watt well since he worked with us in Government previously. We will ask him many...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (7 Mar 2019)

Alan Kelly: We have one arm tied behind our back. This is a real issue. Regarding the work we are meant to do today, and I presume the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach will be getting the same steer, we will not be able to get into the level of detail that we to, on behalf of the taxpayer, regarding the spending of hundreds of millions of euro. That is the first...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (7 Mar 2019)

Alan Kelly: We found out today that, as a committee, we cannot ask somebody such as the head of public procurement to this committee. If we asked one thousand times and were told "no" each time, then that is it. There is nothing we can do about that. We need to change the rules. That is the first thing.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (7 Mar 2019)

Alan Kelly: My second point is that the Secretary General, Mr. Watt, wrote to this committee and stated that he, as Accounting Officer, would decide who comes with him. That is fine. I have no issue with that. That was some weeks ago. It goes beyond what is reasonably fair, or the right way in which to act, to send a letter the night before a meeting. We are after spending a long time preparing and...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (7 Mar 2019)

Alan Kelly: I do not know where we are going with this meeting.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (7 Mar 2019)

Alan Kelly: I accept that, but this is becoming bizarre now.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (7 Mar 2019)

Alan Kelly: I have one last comment. Given what has transpired, perhaps the Chair might want to have a word with the officials. That is up to the Chair, however.

Public Accounts Committee: Oversight and Implementation of Capital Projects and the Role of Public Officials on State Boards: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Office of Government Procurement (7 Mar 2019)

Alan Kelly: I am sorry to interrupt. With the committee's permission, could we take the opening statement as read?

Public Accounts Committee: Oversight and Implementation of Capital Projects and the Role of Public Officials on State Boards: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Office of Government Procurement (7 Mar 2019)

Alan Kelly: Okay, that is fine. Work away.

Public Accounts Committee: Oversight and Implementation of Capital Projects and the Role of Public Officials on State Boards: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Office of Government Procurement (7 Mar 2019)

Alan Kelly: On a point of order, it was not the Department of Health; it was the HSE.

Public Accounts Committee: Oversight and Implementation of Capital Projects and the Role of Public Officials on State Boards: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Office of Government Procurement (7 Mar 2019)

Alan Kelly: I have four questions for the Secretary General and his colleagues. My questions relate to the Estimates process, the functionality of the Department, communications between Departments and circular 12/2010. These are my four topics and I hope to get through the four questions. Article 28.4.4° of the Constitution states, "The Government shall prepare Estimates of the Receipts and...

Public Accounts Committee: Oversight and Implementation of Capital Projects and the Role of Public Officials on State Boards: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Office of Government Procurement (7 Mar 2019)

Alan Kelly: Yes

Public Accounts Committee: Oversight and Implementation of Capital Projects and the Role of Public Officials on State Boards: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Office of Government Procurement (7 Mar 2019)

Alan Kelly: I understand.

Public Accounts Committee: Oversight and Implementation of Capital Projects and the Role of Public Officials on State Boards: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Office of Government Procurement (7 Mar 2019)

Alan Kelly: I understand that. I apologise for interrupting but I am stuck for time.

Public Accounts Committee: Oversight and Implementation of Capital Projects and the Role of Public Officials on State Boards: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Office of Government Procurement (7 Mar 2019)

Alan Kelly: I know but-----

Public Accounts Committee: Oversight and Implementation of Capital Projects and the Role of Public Officials on State Boards: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Office of Government Procurement (7 Mar 2019)

Alan Kelly: I thank Mr. Watt.

Public Accounts Committee: Oversight and Implementation of Capital Projects and the Role of Public Officials on State Boards: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Office of Government Procurement (7 Mar 2019)

Alan Kelly: I apologise for the engagement and I know Mr. Watt must answer the questions but I have a short time and I would appreciate it if he could keep the answers short. The sum of €100 million is not Mickey Mouse money. I know in the scale of what Mr. Watt has presented, it is a fraction but it is not Mickey Mouse money.

Public Accounts Committee: Oversight and Implementation of Capital Projects and the Role of Public Officials on State Boards: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Office of Government Procurement (7 Mar 2019)

Alan Kelly: I know. I am just saying that with regard to the scale of the issue it might be a fraction of the total spend, as Mr. Watt has outlined, but it is €100 million. When the Estimates were revised in December, there was full awareness in the Department of it.

Public Accounts Committee: Oversight and Implementation of Capital Projects and the Role of Public Officials on State Boards: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Office of Government Procurement (7 Mar 2019)

Alan Kelly: There was, because Mr. Watt told us there was in November. We had to come in to do Revised Estimates. It has been pretty embarrassing for the Government over recent weeks when it had to do it.