Results 8,361-8,380 of 21,149 for speaker:Mary Lou McDonald

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (30 Mar 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: That is reasonable because we do not want to be going through a futile exercise. At the same time, we should make clear that we want these officials to come, that they are expected here, the nature of the information that we require, and that we expect them to come in with the i's dotted and the t's crossed. We need to be reasonable but at the same time we cannot let this issue drift. I...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (30 Mar 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: That is right. They will have to appear here as well.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (30 Mar 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: Perhaps we need to write to them again. I agree with Deputy Connolly. For those concerned, this is a personal disaster. Is the Chairman finished with correspondence? I wanted to raise a different issue.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (30 Mar 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: Here is the item of business I wish to raise. I was more than taken aback yesterday evening to hear on the floor of the Dáil that the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, had threatened, through the Chairman, to injunct this committee. I would like the Chairman to give us an explanation as to when that happened and the context in which it happened. We should have been made aware of...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (30 Mar 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: We now have elaborated on the position. It is not just the Minister who has threatened to injunct. We have had similar sabre rattling from NAMA. Was it Mr. Frank Daly who spoke to the Chairman about the issue around legal action and NAMA?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (30 Mar 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: So now we have the head of NAMA, the Minister and officials sabre rattling with the committee.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (30 Mar 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: It is a matter of fact that any of those parties could, and would, legally scrutinise our work and if they were so moved, they could intervene if they believed there was something legally unsound in the report or that they had been impugned in some dramatic way by the work of the committee. However, focusing on that misses the point. There are forces within the system which wish to thwart...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (30 Mar 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: Yes, let us get to the bottom of it and let us hope that this episode does in fact strengthen the committee and does not make people cynical. As far as I am concerned, nobody will stand in the way of us doing the work we are sent here to do. We should have been told about this. It is not good that we got wind of this on the floor of the Dáil. I am delighted the Chairman made friends...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (30 Mar 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: It absolutely is not but neither would I like the Chairman to think the resolution to this is a handshake or a quiet word between two lads. This is the Oireachtas; we are democratically elected politicians. The other issue is given the abuse the constitutional Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General received, we probably got off rather tightly and we should not be surprised by these...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (30 Mar 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: Except their politics is an old boys' club and not an old girls' club, just to state that factually. The Deputy might look around himself.

Public Accounts Committee: University of Limerick: Financial Statements 2014-2015 (30 Mar 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: I presume that we can go to a second round of questions. To declare my interest, I wish to state that I did postgraduate studies at the University of Limerick and, as such, I am certainly not going to question the excellence of its academic endeavours.

Public Accounts Committee: University of Limerick: Financial Statements 2014-2015 (30 Mar 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: I thank the Professor so much. Flattery will get him nowhere, as he will discover.

Public Accounts Committee: University of Limerick: Financial Statements 2014-2015 (30 Mar 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: We are here to discuss the financial arrangements of the university and, as Professor Barry outlined in his opening statement, there are several elements to that. At this stage, I want to talk to Professor Barry about UL's expenses system. Professor Barry accepts that UL has to play by the rules.

Public Accounts Committee: University of Limerick: Financial Statements 2014-2015 (30 Mar 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: He made reference to the funding constraints of the past decade and said, quite correctly, that the highest standards of governance must obtain with regard to the use of public moneys. I put it to him that this has not been the practice in the University of Limerick, specifically having regard to expenses and their administration on Professor Barry's watch.

Public Accounts Committee: University of Limerick: Financial Statements 2014-2015 (30 Mar 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: I have read the briefing paper with interest and thank Professor Barry for it. How long has he been in position as President?

Public Accounts Committee: University of Limerick: Financial Statements 2014-2015 (30 Mar 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: President Barry has beenin situsince 2007 but has been with the university since 2004. Is that not the case?

Public Accounts Committee: University of Limerick: Financial Statements 2014-2015 (30 Mar 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: Professor Barry has a long history and has been around the block, to put it in the nicest possible way.

Public Accounts Committee: University of Limerick: Financial Statements 2014-2015 (30 Mar 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: I am aware that there was a change in systems in 2010 but I am also aware, as the briefing document also states, that three specific individuals referred to as A, B and C came forward with astonishing complaints in respect of what they described as something of a VIP system in terms of how expense claims were awarded. I put it to the professor directly that these allegations were extremely...

Public Accounts Committee: University of Limerick: Financial Statements 2014-2015 (30 Mar 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: Can I say that Professor Barry is using very muted language to describe what happened? As I understand it, and please correct me if I am wrong, hard as they tried person A found it almost impossible to get management to take responsibility or to sign off on what person A regarded as fraudulent expense claims. The detail of it is really quite astonishing; an allegation that mileage expenses...

Public Accounts Committee: University of Limerick: Financial Statements 2014-2015 (30 Mar 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: I am, in part. I want Professor Barry's view on that but initially - with regard to the sample of the complaints raised by person A - the witness is not disputing the fact that person A brought these complaints forward.