Results 12,001-12,020 of 27,334 for speaker:David Cullinane

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Building Energy Rating Administration (1 Oct 2019)

David Cullinane: 449. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the number of houses nationwide in need of retrofit by retrofit scheme in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39384/19]

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (26 Sep 2019)

David Cullinane: The Chairman is right to try to get a comprehensive picture. There is a deeper issue about consultancy costs and fees paid by Departments and State institutions, an issue on which we have focused for some time, but we need to look at it in a more singular way. We had it with the third level institutions and the Department of Education and Skills. It seems that some State institutions...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (26 Sep 2019)

David Cullinane: Is there any way we can find out? Can any Department can find out what the total cost is in any given year and put all the information together?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (26 Sep 2019)

David Cullinane: I never see a figure for how much Departments or the State have spent on consultancy, so it would be a useful exercise for us to do it. The secretariat cannot do it but some Department, such as the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, could give us a figure or seek the information from every State body at our request so that we can look at the figures.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (26 Sep 2019)

David Cullinane: Heaven forbid politicians would use those figures.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (26 Sep 2019)

David Cullinane: There are obviously question marks over the data. That is not to say they are not accurate. There needs to be more rigour in examining the data, as was said. Should we just hold over the correspondence until we get additional information?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (26 Sep 2019)

David Cullinane: It is not on its own.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (26 Sep 2019)

David Cullinane: It does not state the organisation created the jobs.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (26 Sep 2019)

David Cullinane: We had a similar issue with IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland in respect of how they collate the information.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (26 Sep 2019)

David Cullinane: I just cannot follow the figures. How many of them are non-compliant?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (26 Sep 2019)

David Cullinane: My point is if it is the hospital groups are not compliant in terms of getting the appropriate mix, should we find out if there are hospital groups in which there are particular problems? Should we be writing to those groups?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (26 Sep 2019)

David Cullinane: Should we not write to those groups which have the most troubling figures?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (26 Sep 2019)

David Cullinane: We could do that as a start. There are problems with rest as well. If University of Limerick hospital group has the highest number, perhaps it could outline what the challenges are? It is a cost to the taxpayer.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (26 Sep 2019)

David Cullinane: It will give us an idea from the group’s perspective. It might well be funding issues or problems in the HSE and not necessarily the group itself.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (26 Sep 2019)

David Cullinane: We have a lot of correspondence to go through yet. There is a voting block today which does not affect me because I am first in but if we do not start by 10.30 a.m., other members may not get in.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (26 Sep 2019)

David Cullinane: We should be ready to meet the Data Protection Commissioner at 10.30 a.m.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (26 Sep 2019)

David Cullinane: I welcome the letter. It sets out that the main difference between both positions, the directly employed ones and the agency staff, is the pensions. Tusla does not have to make a pension contribution to an agency worker. In fairness, Tusla recognises that if it directly employs people, the workers themselves have better benefits in terms of maternity benefit, career break options, shorter...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (26 Sep 2019)

David Cullinane: I wrote in about the PSC issue. Whatever questions we have are primarily for the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection. The Department will come in within the next five weeks. The committee secretariat may have already written to it.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (26 Sep 2019)

David Cullinane: The Data Protection Commissioner mentioned the report of the Committee of Public Accounts in her opening statement. Within that is a reference to a special report that the Comptroller and Auditor General did on the PSC. There may well be an update on the costings related to that and how much it is costing the taxpayer. The figures went up to 2017 so there may need to be a projection.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (26 Sep 2019)

David Cullinane: We will not know that until after we finish our hearing today. Perhaps we could have some discussion on that next week. We will then be clear about what we want to discuss with the Department and we can get as much information as necessary from it. I know it will not be just that issue but if it is an issue that people want to talk to it about, we can.