Results 10,121-10,140 of 20,410 for speaker:Brian Stanley
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (30 Jun 2022)
Brian Stanley: The Accounting Officer is the Secretary General. If a senior official is coming, it should be the Secretary General. That concludes the consideration of the work programme. If members do not wish to raise anything else, we can go into private session.
- Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (30 Jun 2022) Brian Stanley: I welcome our guests. To limit the risk of spreading Covid-19, the service encourages all members, visitors and witnesses to continue to wear face masks when moving around the campus or when in close proximity to others, to be respectful of other people’s physical space and to adhere to any other public health advice. Particularly in the context of the latest wave of Covid, I ask...
- Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (30 Jun 2022) Brian Stanley: I thank Mr. McCarthy. I welcome Mr. Conlan to the committee and thank him for deputising at short notice for the Secretary General, Mr. Joe Hackett, who is unavoidably absent today. As detailed in the letter of invitation, Mr. Conlan will have five minutes for his opening statement.
- Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (30 Jun 2022) Brian Stanley: I thank Mr. Conlan. The lead committee member today is Deputy Catherine Murphy, who has 15 minutes. She will be followed by Deputy O'Connor and others, each of whom will have ten minutes.
- Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (30 Jun 2022) Brian Stanley: Perhaps Ms Byrne would like to respond to that briefly.
- Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (30 Jun 2022) Brian Stanley: Could something be done about information for the public on that, even on the website? It is a valid point. On the question of people going back 15 days in the queue-----
- Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (30 Jun 2022) Brian Stanley: -----can that not be rectified? It is an issue that consistently comes up. If they are contacted just before or after the target date, as the Deputy asks, why should their application have to go back 15 days or go back around and start again?
- Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (30 Jun 2022) Brian Stanley: I ask Mr. Conlan to do so, because it really is a problem.
- Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (30 Jun 2022) Brian Stanley: Something on photos could be put on the website. I know sitting against a wall with a mobile phone worked for me.
- Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (30 Jun 2022) Brian Stanley: On the question about the MLAs, or even the MPs because there is a smaller number of them so it would be more manageable, if MPs in the North could have that system-----
- Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (30 Jun 2022) Brian Stanley: I am referring to the phone-in system. Maybe elected representatives in the North could be allowed to deal with even ten or 20 applications to the Passport Office per week. Could that be done? The number of MPs is smaller than the number of MLAs. There are only 18 MPs in the North.
- Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (30 Jun 2022) Brian Stanley: I know that, but we are in a crisis now with this. Mr. Conlan has heard what Deputy Carthy said. He lives in Ulster. He is an Ulster Deputy and his constituency office is servicing the nine counties of Ulster. There is a problem there. What I am asking Mr. Conlan is whether we can put in place a system or do something else to open up such a temporary service to the 18 MPs in the North....
- Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (30 Jun 2022) Brian Stanley: Surely, in this day and age, we can do that. The applicants are Irish citizens.
- Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (30 Jun 2022) Brian Stanley: I understand that.
- Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (30 Jun 2022) Brian Stanley: A couple of new staff could come in, maybe, and the Department could train them up.
- Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (30 Jun 2022) Brian Stanley: What is the expected number of passports to be issued this year?
- Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (30 Jun 2022) Brian Stanley: It has about double.
- Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (30 Jun 2022) Brian Stanley: The number of staff has more than doubled.
- Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (30 Jun 2022) Brian Stanley: This tells us that the online system is not speeding it up. If, as the Deputy said, they were all being done by paper ten years ago and 500 million passports were issued by 400 staff, there are now 846 staff issuing roughly double the number this year.
- Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (30 Jun 2022) Brian Stanley: It would appear that there is something wrong.