Results 7,981-8,000 of 21,149 for speaker:Mary Lou McDonald

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (11 May 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: There is a reason documents are dated, and it is to verify the facts as presented on that date. It is as a matter of fact misleading to present the facts in that way, not least as I understood from last week's hearing that it was very late in the day when the Comptroller and Auditor General was alerted to the facts of what was happening in Templemore. I do not say that with the view that we...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (11 May 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: -----but dates must mean something.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (11 May 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: I remind the committee that the issues around the public domain and the matters of public concern were unearthed in this committee room. This is clearly not a court of law, but it clearly is the Committee of Public Accounts of the Oireachtas and is regularly cited as the most influential and powerful committee of the Oireachtas. Vested in us is the responsibility to follow the money from a...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (11 May 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: Was that after a request from the Comptroller and Auditor General?

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriations Account (Resumed)
Vote 24 - Justice and Equality (Resumed)
Chapter 6 - Procurement and Management of Contracts for Direct Provision (Resumed) (11 May 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: And beat you at football.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriations Account (Resumed)
Vote 24 - Justice and Equality (Resumed)
Chapter 6 - Procurement and Management of Contracts for Direct Provision (Resumed) (11 May 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: I thank the witnesses for their forbearance and will keep it as tight as possible. Therefore, I would appreciate clear, concise, non-rambling answers. I wish to return to the issue of bank accounts and the clearance required under the 2005 Act. Will Mr. Waters tell me what the procedure is or who the go-to person is in his Department to seek that sanction?

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriations Account (Resumed)
Vote 24 - Justice and Equality (Resumed)
Chapter 6 - Procurement and Management of Contracts for Direct Provision (Resumed) (11 May 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: I think the gentlemen and ladies are perhaps being a little disingenuous with us or else their recollections are not great. They have not been in a position to shed any light on the business of sanctioning accounts, of which there were approximately 50, some of which go back, which I accept. However, they were in receipt of the interim audit report. Which of them read it on behalf of the rest?

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriations Account (Resumed)
Vote 24 - Justice and Equality (Resumed)
Chapter 6 - Procurement and Management of Contracts for Direct Provision (Resumed) (11 May 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: Has Mr. Waters also read it?

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriations Account (Resumed)
Vote 24 - Justice and Equality (Resumed)
Chapter 6 - Procurement and Management of Contracts for Direct Provision (Resumed) (11 May 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: They will have noticed that on page 23 it cites the 2005 legislation and the necessity to seek the consent of the Minister. It states: "In 2015 a bank account (Garda Student Sport BOI) was opened without such consent being obtained". Will the witnesses, please, explain that to me? They have read the report and I am sure they did not miss that section of it. Whatever about other accounts,...

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriations Account (Resumed)
Vote 24 - Justice and Equality (Resumed)
Chapter 6 - Procurement and Management of Contracts for Direct Provision (Resumed) (11 May 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: Therefore, he was in place at that stage.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriations Account (Resumed)
Vote 24 - Justice and Equality (Resumed)
Chapter 6 - Procurement and Management of Contracts for Direct Provision (Resumed) (11 May 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: Okay. Nonetheless, the audit report indicates that such an account was opened and that it was opened without consent.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriations Account (Resumed)
Vote 24 - Justice and Equality (Resumed)
Chapter 6 - Procurement and Management of Contracts for Direct Provision (Resumed) (11 May 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: I am sure Mr. Waters was alarmed by this revelation when he read it.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriations Account (Resumed)
Vote 24 - Justice and Equality (Resumed)
Chapter 6 - Procurement and Management of Contracts for Direct Provision (Resumed) (11 May 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: So alarmed that he came to an Oireachtas committee today without having a bull's notion of what the procedure is should An Garda Síochána require sanction to open such an account.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriations Account (Resumed)
Vote 24 - Justice and Equality (Resumed)
Chapter 6 - Procurement and Management of Contracts for Direct Provision (Resumed) (11 May 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: Mr. Waters is also aware that matters pertaining to the Garda College in Templemore and, specifically, the audit report are now the subject of widespread public commentary and unease.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriations Account (Resumed)
Vote 24 - Justice and Equality (Resumed)
Chapter 6 - Procurement and Management of Contracts for Direct Provision (Resumed) (11 May 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: Mr. Waters is also in receipt of the report which the witnesses have all read thoroughly and dutifully. They did not miss that bit. I find it incredible that, as Secretary General, Mr. Waters does not know what the procedure is for the Garda to seek clearance for the opening of bank accounts.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriations Account (Resumed)
Vote 24 - Justice and Equality (Resumed)
Chapter 6 - Procurement and Management of Contracts for Direct Provision (Resumed) (11 May 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: Mr. Waters read the report and about all of the accounts - up to 50 - and issues in seeking sanction. For the Garda to operate without the sanction of the Department or the Minister is to breach the law. It is a very serious matter. It is not a triviality. Did none of it spark a thought process in Mr. Waters' head? Did he ask himself if it was the right way to go about it or how one...

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriations Account (Resumed)
Vote 24 - Justice and Equality (Resumed)
Chapter 6 - Procurement and Management of Contracts for Direct Provision (Resumed) (11 May 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: This is one of them.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriations Account (Resumed)
Vote 24 - Justice and Equality (Resumed)
Chapter 6 - Procurement and Management of Contracts for Direct Provision (Resumed) (11 May 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: By the way, as we will be coming back to this issue, if they have not carried out an extensive and in-depth trawl of the Department's paperwork, I suggest the witnesses need to initiate one without delay. I do not accept that it as an acceptable answer from Mr. Waters that he does not know what the mechanism is by which sanction would be obtained by the Garda for the opening of bank accounts.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriations Account (Resumed)
Vote 24 - Justice and Equality (Resumed)
Chapter 6 - Procurement and Management of Contracts for Direct Provision (Resumed) (11 May 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: I am not asking Mr. Waters to know everything but to know his Department.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriations Account (Resumed)
Vote 24 - Justice and Equality (Resumed)
Chapter 6 - Procurement and Management of Contracts for Direct Provision (Resumed) (11 May 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: That might be acceptable, except when a very big controversy erupts, as it has, and when a core component is the fact that accounts were being opened in large numbers without the sanction of the Department and the Minister. In the circumstances, Mr. Waters' plea of ignorance is absolutely shocking. I am shocked that he cannot answer these questions.