Results 11,481-11,500 of 20,793 for speaker:Alan Kelly

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (15 Jun 2017)

Alan Kelly: We will give the witnesses copies of it but they will not be able to respond in detail to some of the issues in it. It is important that everyone read it. We will take time to read it when we finish dealing with the correspondence. No. 566C is correspondence, dated 7 June 2017, from the chairman of the National Asset Management Agency, NAMA, stating that it will engage with the...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (15 Jun 2017)

Alan Kelly: Okay, that is fair enough. I will now display on the screen the statements and accounts received since the previous meeting.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (15 Jun 2017)

Alan Kelly: Yes, it was No. 559C.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (15 Jun 2017)

Alan Kelly: The Department is in on 13 July – a great date, as it is my birthday – in addition to the Department of Justice and Equality.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (15 Jun 2017)

Alan Kelly: We can deal with it then. The Courts Service, the Garda Commissioner and the Department of Justice and Equality are also in that day. That will be a long day.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (15 Jun 2017)

Alan Kelly: We will move on to the statements and accounts received since the previous meeting. Five accounts and statements received are shown on the screens. They include those of the HSE, which is before us today. The Insolvency Service of Ireland received a clear audit opinion. Sport Ireland also got a clear audit opinion. The National Asset Management Agency got a clear audit opinion but...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (15 Jun 2017)

Alan Kelly: Can we get a note on it?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (15 Jun 2017)

Alan Kelly: Okay, that is fair enough. The HSE got a clear audit opinion. Attention was drawn to disclosures by the HSE regarding a significant level of non-competitive procurement. There was a lack of evidence of competitive procurement in relation to 49% by value of a sample of payments worth €30.8 million. That is quite significant.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (15 Jun 2017)

Alan Kelly: We will ask later on why it is a recurring problem. Is it consistent?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (15 Jun 2017)

Alan Kelly: Does it relate to a particular sector or geographic area or is it across the board?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (15 Jun 2017)

Alan Kelly: Which region is the worst?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (15 Jun 2017)

Alan Kelly: There was also a reference to inadequate monitoring and oversight of grants to an outside agency. We all know about that. We will be discussing that later on today as well. There was a clear audit opinion on the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland. We will now deal with the work programme. We had a brief discussion about this yesterday. Today, we have the HSE. Next Tuesday, we...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (15 Jun 2017)

Alan Kelly: Yes, that is fine. I made a number of requests for information as well. What will happen is an email will be sent out tomorrow with all the requests, and if anyone has any issues, he or she should respond to it.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (15 Jun 2017)

Alan Kelly: Yes, of course. I made a lot of requests too. In terms of next Tuesday's meeting, an issue arose about one of the witnesses not attending yesterday. We had agreed that the Garda Commissioner, with relevant clerical staff, would be here on Tuesday. At a previous meeting we agreed to bring the Commissioner in on her own with appropriate staff. Assistant Commissioner Twomey was not able to...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (15 Jun 2017)

Alan Kelly: He is party to a discussion on the 27th but I think we have enough information about what happened on the 27th.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (15 Jun 2017)

Alan Kelly: Yes, okay. Is it agreed that we do not want him to attend?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (15 Jun 2017)

Alan Kelly: Agreed. The meeting on Tuesday will be with the Commissioner on her own with the appropriate clerical staff only. Is there any other business? If there is not, we will, as we agreed earlier, take some time to read the correspondence that has just come in. Mr. Tony O'Brien, director general of the Health Service Executive has been given the correspondence but said he cannot be expected to...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (15 Jun 2017)

Alan Kelly: Yes.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (15 Jun 2017)

Alan Kelly: Yes. Is that agreed? I do not foresee a huge attendance. We should be able to stick to it pretty easily.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (15 Jun 2017)

Alan Kelly: We will deal with the matter for the first hour and the rest of the time will go to the normal HSE business.