Results 8,161-8,180 of 28,162 for speaker:Catherine Murphy

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (17 Feb 2022)

Catherine Murphy: Obviously, we will deal with the audit when Mr. McCarthy signs off on it. Does it go to the Department first?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (17 Feb 2022)

Catherine Murphy: Then it takes time to come back to us, so that could be at the far end of the year.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (17 Feb 2022)

Catherine Murphy: If there were to be a prior year adjustment, for example, would that be something Mr. McCarthy would flag to us outside of the audit or would it be contained in the audit?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (17 Feb 2022)

Catherine Murphy: When?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (17 Feb 2022)

Catherine Murphy: I want to know a whole lot of things. What will be the successor organisation or database? What is the timeline? What will this cost? The reply from the Department indicated it was a pathfinder project. I ask it to describe to us what a pathfinder project is. Where is the value for money in investing in the region of €6.5 million of public money in a database, which is heavily...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (17 Feb 2022)

Catherine Murphy: Yes. It would be useful to hear if the Comptroller and Auditor General has a role in looking at things that are started and then ceased, from a value-for-money perspective.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (17 Feb 2022)

Catherine Murphy: Okay.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (17 Feb 2022)

Catherine Murphy: We can come back to it then.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (17 Feb 2022)

Catherine Murphy: It is great if you want to watch ads.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (17 Feb 2022)

Catherine Murphy: When you go looking for the website now, you are told it is now offline. It was a very useful database that was open source and widely used. This was terminated at very short notice. It has been reported that the people operating it basically found out by way of an FOI request that was subsequently published in one of the newspapers. According to the Department's response, it was a...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (17 Feb 2022)

Catherine Murphy: I just want to understand what role we might have in this. Is there a role for the Committee of Public Accounts in this?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (17 Feb 2022)

Catherine Murphy: We might have some very good suggestions.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (17 Feb 2022)

Catherine Murphy: There are also questions about the RTÉ Player, which I raised with Ms Forbes when she was before us. I asked her how much had been invested and how much it was necessary to invest to bring it up to a standard. We are being told here that it is an investment of a significant capital funding to the level of tens of millions. When they say, “tens of millions”, do they mean...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (17 Feb 2022)

Catherine Murphy: Yes. Surely, they have scoped it out.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (17 Feb 2022)

Catherine Murphy: It is point No. 5. The second point I wanted to make is on point No. 10, which relates to the completion date. We should go back and ask what sanctions are available for that slippage. There is significant inflation in the construction sector and there is almost a benefit to not completing on time. I want to know would they outline what sanctions are available in that context.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (17 Feb 2022)

Catherine Murphy: My point is there was a particular legal firm that provided the main people who advised on the tender and the same legal firm are assisting the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board in dealing with the claims. I am asking whether that is robust enough. Is there a conflict of interest, in that they would be defending their own work but they also have the benefit of knowing the...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (17 Feb 2022)

Catherine Murphy: I would like that, please.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (17 Feb 2022)

Catherine Murphy: The second issue is specifically around the completion date. We were not supposed to be able to talk about that, according to the Secretary General of the Department when he wrote to us some time ago, but I want to know what controls are there in terms of sanctions for the constant slippage.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (17 Feb 2022)

Catherine Murphy: Point No. 9.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (17 Feb 2022)

Catherine Murphy: Horse Sport Ireland receives somewhere between €6 million and €7 million through the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. My query relates to the relocation to Greenogue of a facility. Aspects of this were controversial in that Horse Sport Ireland covers a range of different activities. Horse Sport Ireland has publicly said it is going ahead with this. The...