Results 7,901-7,920 of 28,162 for speaker:Catherine Murphy

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (24 Mar 2022)

Catherine Murphy: It is highly unusual to see accounts and financial statements like this and the fact that there are a number of issues. The previous Committee of Public Accounts did a piece of work on some of the universities, and UL was one of them. If I recall correctly, there were issues with people terminating an employment and being taken on as consultants afterwards. Some of that had to do with...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (24 Mar 2022)

Catherine Murphy: Yes.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (24 Mar 2022)

Catherine Murphy: On the severance agreement, it strikes me that the Department of Education would have a role here. Does that Department pick up on this or is it notified? Or is it something we need to do in addition to the Comptroller and Auditor General drawing attention to it?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (24 Mar 2022)

Catherine Murphy: I thank Mr. McCarthy.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (24 Mar 2022)

Catherine Murphy: It is a very useful response, which obviously follows on from our hearing and some issues that we had asked to follow up. That is always very helpful. Page 5 gives information with regard to tolls and the M50 e-Flow system, with figures for 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021. These are very similar to some of the figures I got back by way of parliamentary questions. I believe, however, that they...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (24 Mar 2022)

Catherine Murphy: Before I speak to this, will we be coming back to No. 1119? On this item, I am unsure about the S class contributions. My understanding is the scope section would have identified issues and RTÉ paid all the PRSI at the A class rate and paid its share of the employee class. Can RTÉ clarify the position in regard to the S class contributions, which it appears to be retaining? I...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (24 Mar 2022)

Catherine Murphy: We are all acutely aware of the number of claims. I am sure the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board is doing its best to adjudicate on and reduce those claims. They are over and above the €1.73 billion estimate we have been talking about. There are a substantial number of those claims. I agree entirely with the Chair on the points we raised. We made a specific effort to...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (24 Mar 2022)

Catherine Murphy: Regarding the question of staffing, I keep saying that a contract is a two-way thing. There is an obligation on the contractor's side to carry out the project as it was outlined. That would have meant having sufficient staff working on the site. I would like us to ask specifically if a counterclaim is being taken, or considered, in respect of non-compliance on the contractor's side.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (24 Mar 2022)

Catherine Murphy: I know people get excited about things but this is something I watch very closely. I have a particular interest in it. It is very useful to have the response.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (24 Mar 2022)

Catherine Murphy: No, I like going through the records. I am one of these nerds. Something that jumped out at me is the statement that there is a significant appetite for high quality online cultural material. There definitely is. The pilot cultural digitisation scheme from 2017 to 2022 will be continued. There is also the digitisation of the 1926 census, which several of us have raised over the years....

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (24 Mar 2022)

Catherine Murphy: There was a huge digitisation project when they were moved to the new public records office. There was downtime for a couple of years. It has transformed things in the North. There is a good relationship between the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland and the National Archives. There was an announcement but when you start to look at the timelines, you see they are not very clear....

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (24 Mar 2022)

Catherine Murphy: There are a good few of them in Portlaoise.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (24 Mar 2022)

Catherine Murphy: Yes.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (24 Mar 2022)

Catherine Murphy: It is very welcome the dispute has been resolved because it was a serious impediment and led to delays. On the section 102 referrals that relate to the death of or serious harm to a person, we are given figures there in the final section of the table. It tells us there were 43 referrals in 2020 and 59 in 2021. It would useful for us to get some additional information on that. It would...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (24 Mar 2022)

Catherine Murphy: I thank the Chairman.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (24 Mar 2022)

Catherine Murphy: Yes. Did we get a response about Benefacts? It came up in correspondence several weeks ago. I think we were to write to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform on that. If we have not had a reply, we might go back after it because many people are very upset that this database is no longer functioning. It was well used and very much appreciated.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (24 Mar 2022)

Catherine Murphy: I thank the Chairman.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (24 Mar 2022)

Catherine Murphy: No.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (24 Mar 2022)

Catherine Murphy: What I am sure the Deputy is trying to do is look at where there is competition to deliver the same services. Maybe getting a response from Eir directly on what its strategy is and how that aligns with the NBP would be useful.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (24 Mar 2022)

Catherine Murphy: I have not yet watched the programme. I did not get a chance. Hopefully I will see it later. I share the view that we have a system of local administration, rather than one of local government. As I spent decades on the council, it is an area I know very well. I would say to Deputy O'Connor that the officials in the local authorities did not assume power; they were given it. That has...