Results 7,501-7,520 of 26,465 for speaker:John McGuinness

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Role and Operation of National Development Finance Agency: Discussion (3 Jul 2018)

John McGuinness: I am asking what advice will the NDFA give. Has it learned a lesson from this? In the light of Carillion's failure within the process, what will the NDFA tell the new contractor? What advice will it give to whoever is writing the contract to protect the payment of the last person in the line?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Role and Operation of National Development Finance Agency: Discussion (3 Jul 2018)

John McGuinness: Obviously, the contractor will have won in a competitive tender process, but is there no line the NDFA can insert into the contract to require the contractor to employ people at the same rate they had been charging for goods and services?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Role and Operation of National Development Finance Agency: Discussion (3 Jul 2018)

John McGuinness: No, I am asking the NDFA to insert it into the main contract.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Role and Operation of National Development Finance Agency: Discussion (3 Jul 2018)

John McGuinness: What I do not like about the committee's conversation today is that the NDFA is dealing with many companies, but at the centre of this issue is taxpayers' money and the State. He who pays the piper calls the tune. Therefore, the NDFA has to do something to stop this. As part of a learning process on this issue, I am asking what it will insert into the new contract to protect everyone down...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Role and Operation of National Development Finance Agency: Discussion (3 Jul 2018)

John McGuinness: Could the contract provisions have allowed for that?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Role and Operation of National Development Finance Agency: Discussion (3 Jul 2018)

John McGuinness: Mr. O'Neill said that beyond that payment, the contract did not stipulate anything. I am asking if it could have.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Role and Operation of National Development Finance Agency: Discussion (3 Jul 2018)

John McGuinness: Given the experience we have gained through the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General investigating misspending and poor spending by the State, or just the downright laziness that caused the whole thing to fold up, would the NDFA not have learned from the experience and, in the context of this big contract, stipulated that down to the end of the line it was going to show how much it...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Role and Operation of National Development Finance Agency: Discussion (3 Jul 2018)

John McGuinness: A minute ago Mr. O'Neill told me that the NDFA could not stipulate it to the nth degree. I am asking it to do so. I am also asking the question about the contractor as an example. Can we get back the school furniture that has not been paid for because it has not honoured the contract? It is stated in the contract that it is not its furniture until it pays for it. Are we going to play the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Role and Operation of National Development Finance Agency: Discussion (3 Jul 2018)

John McGuinness: That takes me back to the role as adviser. The NDFA has learned from the past and seen all of the reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General and we are here now. Will it now advise that this should happen? We create the legislation, but the Minister and the Department are advised by somebody at the coalface. The NDFA is at the coalface. Will it advise them where it has gone wrong?...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Role and Operation of National Development Finance Agency: Discussion (3 Jul 2018)

John McGuinness: No, but the NDFA advises.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Role and Operation of National Development Finance Agency: Discussion (3 Jul 2018)

John McGuinness: Where it sees that the rules and regulations are wrong and causing such problems in the SME sector, would it not just tell them to change the rules or the legislation? Is that not part of what it should be doing?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Role and Operation of National Development Finance Agency: Discussion (3 Jul 2018)

John McGuinness: That is all I asked for.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Role and Operation of National Development Finance Agency: Discussion (3 Jul 2018)

John McGuinness: There is no harm in breaking a mould that does not work and introducing something that might put manners on the industry. Carillion may have been the cheapest bidder, but we have a great country; history tells us that we built America and England, including London. Some of the biggest companies of one kind or another are Irish made. Our attraction to going beyond our shores in procurement...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Role and Operation of National Development Finance Agency: Discussion (3 Jul 2018)

John McGuinness: Going back to the issue of where goods are provided and are not paid for, is there any way of addressing that?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Role and Operation of National Development Finance Agency: Discussion (3 Jul 2018)

John McGuinness: People out there who are owed money will look at this meeting as a farce. It is the State that is offering the contract. It is taxpayers' money we are paying out. Surely to God we should have some respect for the SME sector, that at one stage employed 1 million people, and ensure that the State does things right and sets the example. The witnesses should go away and reconsider the whole...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Role and Operation of National Development Finance Agency: Discussion (3 Jul 2018)

John McGuinness: No, the money comes from the NDFA and the auditors provided the agency with figures that were flawed. If these flawed figures formed the basis of an understanding about a contract, then the company in question misled the NDFA as much as the banks misled us in 2008. For this reason, the agency should ask its legal advisers if it has a case. If so, it should sue the auditors and put manners...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Role and Operation of National Development Finance Agency: Discussion (3 Jul 2018)

John McGuinness: In that case, they were flawed.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Role and Operation of National Development Finance Agency: Discussion (3 Jul 2018)

John McGuinness: The trend was flawed, so they were flawed. Mr. Cahillane said it. Sue them.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Role and Operation of National Development Finance Agency: Discussion (3 Jul 2018)

John McGuinness: I thank members and witnesses for their attendance.

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Credit Union Services (3 Jul 2018)

John McGuinness: 86. To ask the Minister for Finance if the policy or regulation that prevents credit unions from introducing a debit card facility unless they have an asset base of €75 million will be reviewed; his views on whether the €75 million threshold is too high; his plans to encourage the reduction of the figure to €50 million; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29077/18]