Results 12,481-12,500 of 26,610 for speaker:David Cullinane

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (14 Feb 2019)

David Cullinane: Our focus should be on weakness in the processes and procedures, and how improvements can be made.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (14 Feb 2019)

David Cullinane: Does the Office of Public Procurement come under the remit of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (14 Feb 2019)

David Cullinane: That is all the more reason the Secretary General of that Department should come before us. We have asked for the head of the Office of Public Procurement to come before us as well. Is that correct? Has that invitation been issued?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (14 Feb 2019)

David Cullinane: I think we should invite him. I understood we were going to invite him. If we did not make that decision, I recommend that we do so.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (14 Feb 2019)

David Cullinane: To be fair to the individual in question, I agree with Teachta Kelly that there are issues here. Where weaknesses in controls are identified, there is an obligation on an individual who is a senior civil servant to notify the Minister and that did not happen. That is something that we need to probe. We need to give this circular to the individual in advance of him appearing before the...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (14 Feb 2019)

David Cullinane: I thought we did.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (14 Feb 2019)

David Cullinane: Please bear with me. If we agree to invite people in, I do not think we have to go back to the issue in our work programme as it has been agreed at that point.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (14 Feb 2019)

David Cullinane: Does the Chairman agree that the circular should be sent to him in advance?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (14 Feb 2019)

David Cullinane: Exactly, because we need to know what information he was given as a board member and what meetings he attended and did not attend.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (14 Feb 2019)

David Cullinane: There were more last week.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (14 Feb 2019)

David Cullinane: I appreciate there are witnesses waiting outside. I had flagged earlier-----

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (14 Feb 2019)

David Cullinane: -----that we should prioritise this on the correspondence. My issue is that we had the Secretary General of the Department before us on this issue. We were dealing specifically with the processes and procedures around procurement and the spend of taxpayers' money in respect of the national children's hospital. We had to drag information out of the Department in respect of the cost...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (14 Feb 2019)

David Cullinane: Do we get the Department back in with the Mazars report and the documentation we now have and say, "Now let us have the real discussion around where there were weaknesses and failures"?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (14 Feb 2019)

David Cullinane: Did the Comptroller and Auditor General's office get that report before it came to the Committee of Public Accounts?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (14 Feb 2019)

David Cullinane: I have a slightly different view. I would publish the report now but if there is a wisdom that we need to get permission to do it, it should be sought very quickly. If we get it we should publish the report because, to be honest, it is out there. Every media outlet has it. We need to stop messing around with this type of stuff. There is a damning report. We are waiting for another...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (14 Feb 2019)

David Cullinane: I want to be very clear on this. It is a joint finance and construction subcommittee.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Climate Action and Environment
Broadband Service Provision: Discussion
BT Ireland (14 Feb 2019)

David Cullinane: I welcome Mr. Evans and Mr. O'Dwyer and thank them for coming before us in a voluntary capacity. The witnesses have answered some of these questions already. We are talking about the wholesale operational licence for the MANs infrastructure. That is what Enet has; is that correct?

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Climate Action and Environment
Broadband Service Provision: Discussion
BT Ireland (14 Feb 2019)

David Cullinane: Two years before the current licence or contract was due to expire, it was renewed.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Climate Action and Environment
Broadband Service Provision: Discussion
BT Ireland (14 Feb 2019)

David Cullinane: There was no tendering or competitive tension in it. It was simply renewed. I understand there was no publication or information distributed about the pricing structure. Mr. Evans mentioned earlier, as a critique of the process, that there was no allowance to pricing. Can he expand on that?

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Climate Action and Environment
Broadband Service Provision: Discussion
BT Ireland (14 Feb 2019)

David Cullinane: Have there been any publications as to why that was the case? I accept the prices are put out there. If it is the case that this is not something that is comparable with other countries, for example, have there been any publications as to why the price has remained static in this State?