Results 7,281-7,300 of 10,573 for speaker:Patrick O'Donovan

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements of the Higher Education Authority 2013
General Report No. 85 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Accountability and Governance on the National College of Art and Design (22 Jan 2015)

Patrick O'Donovan: What action has the Department taken in respect of the HEA if it was not satisfied?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements of the Higher Education Authority 2013
General Report No. 85 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Accountability and Governance on the National College of Art and Design (22 Jan 2015)

Patrick O'Donovan: In the world outside of the public service, if I was responsible for €80 million which was channelled through me to an intermediary and on to the end user, and the intermediary did not tell me for four years that a problem existed with the end user, to say I would be dissatisfied is putting it mildly. I would certainly be looking for a change in terms of the intermediary.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements of the Higher Education Authority 2013
General Report No. 85 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Accountability and Governance on the National College of Art and Design (22 Jan 2015)

Patrick O'Donovan: That is it. No more action is required as far as the Department is concerned.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements of the Higher Education Authority 2013
General Report No. 85 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Accountability and Governance on the National College of Art and Design (22 Jan 2015)

Patrick O'Donovan: Does Mr. Ó Foghlú think it sufficient that the HEA, with a budget that is as large as some small countries, at €1.2 billion, employs two accountants?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements of the Higher Education Authority 2013
General Report No. 85 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Accountability and Governance on the National College of Art and Design (22 Jan 2015)

Patrick O'Donovan: That is not the question I asked.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements of the Higher Education Authority 2013
General Report No. 85 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Accountability and Governance on the National College of Art and Design (22 Jan 2015)

Patrick O'Donovan: I will ask Mr. McGonagle two questions before concluding. Between 2004 and 2010, when the Comptroller and Auditor General could not sign off on the accounts, the NCAD's audit committee was meeting in a haphazard way occasionally, to put it at best. Is there any reason the audit committee did not take a more proactive role?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements of the Higher Education Authority 2013
General Report No. 85 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Accountability and Governance on the National College of Art and Design (22 Jan 2015)

Patrick O'Donovan: Yes, but I asked about the audit committee.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements of the Higher Education Authority 2013
General Report No. 85 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Accountability and Governance on the National College of Art and Design (22 Jan 2015)

Patrick O'Donovan: The reason we are here is that from 2009 up to now there has been a trail of destruction in respect of certified accounts from the institution. We are trying to find out why that is the case and what has happened to make it different.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements of the Higher Education Authority 2013
General Report No. 85 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Accountability and Governance on the National College of Art and Design (22 Jan 2015)

Patrick O'Donovan: Is the board fit for purpose?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements of the Higher Education Authority 2013
General Report No. 85 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Accountability and Governance on the National College of Art and Design (22 Jan 2015)

Patrick O'Donovan: But the systems are not?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements of the Higher Education Authority 2013
General Report No. 85 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Accountability and Governance on the National College of Art and Design (22 Jan 2015)

Patrick O'Donovan: Whose fault is that?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements of the Higher Education Authority 2013
General Report No. 85 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Accountability and Governance on the National College of Art and Design (22 Jan 2015)

Patrick O'Donovan: Who is responsible for the systems and practices in the college?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements of the Higher Education Authority 2013
General Report No. 85 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Accountability and Governance on the National College of Art and Design (22 Jan 2015)

Patrick O'Donovan: Who in the college?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements of the Higher Education Authority 2013
General Report No. 85 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Accountability and Governance on the National College of Art and Design (22 Jan 2015)

Patrick O'Donovan: If the systems were not fit for purpose over a five-year period, surely the management in the college was not fit for purpose either.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements of the Higher Education Authority 2013
General Report No. 85 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Accountability and Governance on the National College of Art and Design (22 Jan 2015)

Patrick O'Donovan: That does not explain the period 2004 to 2009 nor does it explain why every other third level institute, many of whose names are included in the McCarthy report and had question marks hanging over them, is not in the situation in which the NCAD finds itself. That response does not explain the position.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements of the Higher Education Authority 2013
General Report No. 85 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Accountability and Governance on the National College of Art and Design (22 Jan 2015)

Patrick O'Donovan: Some of the smaller teacher training colleges do not have that structure.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements of the Higher Education Authority 2013
General Report No. 85 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Accountability and Governance on the National College of Art and Design (22 Jan 2015)

Patrick O'Donovan: That does not take from the fact that what we are talking about here is the accounts. We are talking about the systems within the NCAD, its relationship with the HEA, and the HEA's relationship with the Department of Education and Skills, which have been an unmitigated disaster. Nothing was done over five years until the Comptroller and Auditor General decided enough was enough and...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements of the Higher Education Authority 2013
General Report No. 85 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Accountability and Governance on the National College of Art and Design (22 Jan 2015)

Patrick O'Donovan: I thank the Chairman.

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Decentralisation Programme Expenditure (22 Jan 2015)

Patrick O'Donovan: 83. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform further to Parliamentary Question No. 196 of 14 January 2015, if he will provide details of properties that were leased for the purposes of decentralisation during the period of 1997 to 2011, to which no agencies or personnel were assigned; the amount agreed to in respect of each lease; the annual cost of each; and if he will make a...

Committee on Transport and Communications: Select Sub-Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Aviation Agreements: Motion (21 Jan 2015)

Patrick O'Donovan: I appreciate the Minister said the development of the Canadian market is very important from an Irish point of view. In that context our national carrier especially in terms of the development of further transatlantic routes out of Dublin and Shannon is of huge importance to the economy. There has been much recent commentary on a possible sale of a Government stake in Aer Lingus. The...