Results 10,481-10,500 of 21,440 for speaker:Mary Lou McDonald

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 91 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Management of Severance Payments in Public Sector Bodies (21 Sep 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: Can the witness say that for a fact? If that is the case, I understand it. If not and when we just had a new Government, it appeared that they were running and fleeing the ship early on.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 91 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Management of Severance Payments in Public Sector Bodies (21 Sep 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: I am not questioning that people are entitled to their severance. I just wondered about the figure. If it was a new Government, were all these folks heading off to the horizon? However, if the 41 is a consequence of a change of Government, that makes sense. I simply wished to check that.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 91 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Management of Severance Payments in Public Sector Bodies (21 Sep 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: Yes.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 91 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Management of Severance Payments in Public Sector Bodies (21 Sep 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: That is fine.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 91 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Management of Severance Payments in Public Sector Bodies (21 Sep 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: On the positive side of the ledger, the Central Bank representatives have accepted the report and they have remediated the shortcomings, so they tell us. On the negative side, my reading of this in respect of the Central Bank is that the lack of compliance was quite shocking. I appreciate the nature of operational risk and that there are no 100% guarantees. I appreciate the level of growth...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 91 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Management of Severance Payments in Public Sector Bodies (21 Sep 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: Is that sufficient? Is that ratio sufficient?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 91 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Management of Severance Payments in Public Sector Bodies (21 Sep 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: Is the HR function stretched?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 91 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Management of Severance Payments in Public Sector Bodies (21 Sep 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: I am trying to be helpful. If it is an issue that there is a staffing deficit within the human resources or industrial relations functions, then it is something one would be concerned about. Mr. Quinn referred to a criticism relating to the legal files and remarked that documented legal evidence was not in the right folder.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 91 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Management of Severance Payments in Public Sector Bodies (21 Sep 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: Where was the legal advice? The report refers to compliance with good practice. Page 35 of the report refers to key good practice requirements. One key stipulation is whether documented legal advice is obtained, whether internal or external. The letter X is beside that statement, which means that the Central Bank was not compliant. Is Mr. Quinn trying to say the advice received was in a...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 91 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Management of Severance Payments in Public Sector Bodies (21 Sep 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: I do not wish to be rude but could the Comptroller and Auditor General clarify if that was the problem, namely, that he was looking to have it all in one file but that it was dissipated across the system?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 91 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Management of Severance Payments in Public Sector Bodies (21 Sep 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: Yes. That is really bad.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 91 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Management of Severance Payments in Public Sector Bodies (21 Sep 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: All right. I will not second-guess Mr. Quinn on that. I will conclude with more of a remark than a question. I am troubled by the fact that Mr. Quinn is playing down as an unfortunate oversight something that I would regard as nothing but common sense, which is that one would have one's documentation in a coherent fashion and filed appropriately so that not just the Comptroller and...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 91 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Management of Severance Payments in Public Sector Bodies (21 Sep 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: Yes, and, therefore, the treatment of it should have reflected that.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 91 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Management of Severance Payments in Public Sector Bodies (21 Sep 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: I am relieved to hear it. I wish to make one final remark. Mr. Quinn, quite correctly, I am sure, stated that the settlements we are dealing with represent 0.11% of the bank's total payroll expenditure in the period concerned. Again, that is fair enough but I wish to make the general observation that it is not the issue. If this is, in Mr. Quinn and others' heads and in his presentation,...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 91 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Management of Severance Payments in Public Sector Bodies (21 Sep 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: That is not how it came across to me. It is either defensive, which might be understandable, or it is dismissive, which is not good, healthy or understandable.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 91 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Management of Severance Payments in Public Sector Bodies (21 Sep 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: I am glad that Mr. Quinn has clarified that. I thank him.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (21 Sep 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: May I suggest that we do not entirely close the book on that. I know the Minister has, at last, confirmed that he will be here but we might require him to return. We also need to inform the NAMA representatives that their appearance on 29 September will not be a one-off but-----

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (21 Sep 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: -----will be their first appearance and that we are now engaged in what will be an extensive examination of the Comptroller and Auditor General's report.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (21 Sep 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: Yes.

Written Answers — Department of Health: Services for People with Disabilities (16 Sep 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: 1147. To ask the Minister for Health the public services that are now available in County Clare to assist a person (details supplied) since the cutting of funding to Disabled People of Clare and its subsequent closure. [24998/16]