Results 8,281-8,300 of 21,440 for speaker:Mary Lou McDonald

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.

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: What does the witness do?

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: Exactly. What is the purpose of the witness's function if he is not in charge? He is the Accounting Officer to this committee.

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: Coming in and singing dumb really is not the way to approach appearances here.

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: The witness's state of knowledge is non-existent.

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: What did come before the witness was the audit report. It also went to Mr. O'Callaghan. The audit report is very clear on many things, but I am citing one instance on page 23. It cites the opening of a bank account named Garda Student Sport with the Bank of Ireland which opened in 2015, and it was opened without consent. For the auditor to arrive at that conclusion he or she presumably...

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: We are obviously not going to get back to this particular issue. We need clarity on this matter.

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: We need to know exactly what the procedure is, how these matters are sanctioned, who deals with it now and who dealt with it historically. I have cited one bank account. There are dozens of others, and I believe that the witnesses are going to have to go on an expedition of discovery around that.

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: How is that relevant to that point?

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 do not wish to be rude but we are tight on time. The Commissioner accepts the findings. These are not matters of contention. There is no "he said, she said, you said, I said" element to this. We accept that these are established matters of fact in this report. I would appreciate if the witness could come back with the facts on this situation. Section 41 of the Garda...