Results 12,101-12,120 of 20,094 for speaker:Brian Stanley

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
Chapter 9 - Remediation of Landfill Sites (14 Oct 2021)

Brian Stanley: We will resume in approximately five minutes.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
Chapter 9 - Remediation of Landfill Sites (14 Oct 2021)

Brian Stanley: The next committee member to speak is Deputy Sherlock but he has not joined us yet so we will move on to Deputy Colm Burke.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
Chapter 9 - Remediation of Landfill Sites (14 Oct 2021)

Brian Stanley: Is the Deputy's question for Mr. Griffin?

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
Chapter 9 - Remediation of Landfill Sites (14 Oct 2021)

Brian Stanley: I have some questions on the national broadband plan. Back in June, in reply to a parliamentary question, it was stated that 4,000 homes out of the 115,000 originally targeted for this year were competed. On 15 September there were 23,000, according to the CEO of National Broadband Ireland. There are now 27,000. We have clarified this today. The target is 60,000 so there are 33,000...

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
Chapter 9 - Remediation of Landfill Sites (14 Oct 2021)

Brian Stanley: We are down to half the target. My point is that half the year was not missed.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
Chapter 9 - Remediation of Landfill Sites (14 Oct 2021)

Brian Stanley: NBI-----

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
Chapter 9 - Remediation of Landfill Sites (14 Oct 2021)

Brian Stanley: I saw NBI vans going around in the springtime. There was some level of operation going on. I want to ask about the penalties. This is something that we need to nail down today. On 1 June, I asked the Minister of State, Deputy Ossian Smyth, in the Dáil about this. He said that as he understood it, there were none in the current contract. The reply to a parliamentary question I put...

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
Chapter 9 - Remediation of Landfill Sites (14 Oct 2021)

Brian Stanley: The only penalty financially is that the company does not get paid.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
Chapter 9 - Remediation of Landfill Sites (14 Oct 2021)

Brian Stanley: If a carpenter doing work in a house starts and does a bit of it and then goes away and comes back, and keeps coming and going over a period of time so that two weeks' work takes the better part of a year, that carpenter will not get paid until the job is finished. It is common enough and I have a little bit of experience of it. That carpenter is happy enough to have held the job and the...

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
Chapter 9 - Remediation of Landfill Sites (14 Oct 2021)

Brian Stanley: Yes, I understand that but they are the same laws of economics.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
Chapter 9 - Remediation of Landfill Sites (14 Oct 2021)

Brian Stanley: I want to move on.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
Chapter 9 - Remediation of Landfill Sites (14 Oct 2021)

Brian Stanley: There are no financial penalties.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
Chapter 9 - Remediation of Landfill Sites (14 Oct 2021)

Brian Stanley: Mr. Mulligan is one of the main people overseeing this in the Department. He and I discussed this matter a couple of years ago, along with Mr. Ó hÓbáin. The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, on 3 April 2019, issued observations and memos for the Minister's attention. I have copies in front of me. The Department set out its concerns. The document I have to hand,...

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
Chapter 9 - Remediation of Landfill Sites (14 Oct 2021)

Brian Stanley: The question I have for Mr. Griffin-----

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
Chapter 9 - Remediation of Landfill Sites (14 Oct 2021)

Brian Stanley: I understand that the Government signed off on it at the time but the concerns raised by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, including professional people working in that Department, made many of us nervous about the whole process at the time. Those of us who were on the communications committee at the time were very concerned about it.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
Chapter 9 - Remediation of Landfill Sites (14 Oct 2021)

Brian Stanley: I take that on board but there are great concerns. It is a big contract. It is legitimate that I raised the matter. I still have concerns about it; I have to say that to Mr. Griffin.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
Chapter 9 - Remediation of Landfill Sites (14 Oct 2021)

Brian Stanley: On Mr. Griffin's reply to the committee on 22 January, he said he thought we were in good shape meeting those targets. We were fairly well into the wave of Covid at the time. Mr. Griffin went on to say, "After year 1 ... there has been significant progress on the contract. In short, there are no targets that have not been met".

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
Chapter 9 - Remediation of Landfill Sites (14 Oct 2021)

Brian Stanley: I have to put it to Mr. Griffin that we are still coming in at just about half of the original target – 115,000 for the year. Half the year was not missed because of Covid. My final question is on the board of National Broadband Ireland. Right from the beginning, there was an issue with the fact that there are nine members on the board. Eight of those represent the private...

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
Chapter 9 - Remediation of Landfill Sites (14 Oct 2021)

Brian Stanley: I am not doubting that or her ability, but the fact is that at a board meeting where a matter is to be contested, particularly where a difficult decision has to be made, the person representing where nearly 90% of the money comes from is but one of nine members. Anybody who has ever sat at a board meeting or committee meeting will know that the power balance is not just tilted but loaded...

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
Chapter 9 - Remediation of Landfill Sites (14 Oct 2021)

Brian Stanley: I hear what Mr. Griffin said about expecting members of the board to perform and to have robust exchanges,. The reality is, however, that when an issue arises in the context of the interests of the taxpayer and the interests of the State, it is the private entity that holds an awful lot of cards. We cannot just stop in the middle of the contract and move that entity off the pitch, no more...