Results 12,541-12,560 of 26,396 for speaker:David Cullinane

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (24 Jan 2019)

David Cullinane: We should not leave here today without an indication from the Department as to how it believes we should proceed. The Comptroller and Auditor General would have been across this area in the context of dealing with the Quigley report into Waterford, furnished to a previous Committee of Public Accounts. An inspector was appointed by the Minister to conduct a statutory inspection. Is that correct?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (24 Jan 2019)

David Cullinane: We should put that to the Secretary General and ask if that can be considered now.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (24 Jan 2019)

David Cullinane: Just to add to what Deputy MacSharry has said in regard to the gap in the HEA's powers, that is precisely my understanding of the why the previous CEO of the authority resigned. We lost the head of the HEA because of the authority's lack of powers and its inability to do the work that we want it to do. This has an impact on our work. Apart from the Waterford issue, for which we may be able...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (24 Jan 2019)

David Cullinane: The problem is that we have a great deal of communication already and this has gone over and back. We can seek more documentation - we could fill this room with it. At the end of the day, I do not believe this committee is in a position to make a determination on whether there was anything wrong. If that is the case, then we need to look at who is. Does this need to be examined? I am...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (24 Jan 2019)

David Cullinane: That seems to be sensible to me because if the Comptroller and Auditor General took the view that there was an issue in the course of the audit, then he could consider the best way to proceed.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (24 Jan 2019)

David Cullinane: And the correspondence that comes with all of those.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (24 Jan 2019)

David Cullinane: These are all very serious issues. I propose that if by 10.15 a.m. we have not finished correspondence, we hold over correspondence because we have a lot to do with representatives from the two institutes coming in. The time could slip by.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (24 Jan 2019)

David Cullinane: Can I briefly ask the Comptroller and Auditor General to clarify his role in this because there was some public commentary about him and the National Children's Hospital?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (24 Jan 2019)

David Cullinane: Nor can he be directed to either.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (24 Jan 2019)

David Cullinane: I am sure there will be at least one question on Sligo IT.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (24 Jan 2019)

David Cullinane: That is my job.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 103 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Remuneration of certain senior staff in the University of Limerick and Institute of Technology Sligo (24 Jan 2019)

David Cullinane: First, I thank Mr. O'Toole for his opening statement. On the WIT report, representatives of the institute will be before us this afternoon but they will be here to deal with the special report of the Comptroller and Auditor General which dealt with only one small element of spin-outs, the issue of FeedHenry. As Mr. O'Toole will know, the HEA's report was much more substantial. The 50...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 103 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Remuneration of certain senior staff in the University of Limerick and Institute of Technology Sligo (24 Jan 2019)

David Cullinane: I will stick to my 15 minutes because I want to allow colleagues to come in and we have an afternoon session. I concur with Deputy Connolly when she rightly pointed out that Dr. McCormack's opening statement dealt conclusively with the issues. Sligo Institute of Technology was exemplary in how it responded to the Comptroller and Auditor General's report. If other institutions behaved in...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 103 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Remuneration of certain senior staff in the University of Limerick and Institute of Technology Sligo (24 Jan 2019)

David Cullinane: Did a separate Deloitte report examine allegations made by whistleblowers?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 103 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Remuneration of certain senior staff in the University of Limerick and Institute of Technology Sligo (24 Jan 2019)

David Cullinane: Whistleblowers B and C, for example, did not feature in the Deloitte report. Did they feature in the Thorn report?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 103 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Remuneration of certain senior staff in the University of Limerick and Institute of Technology Sligo (24 Jan 2019)

David Cullinane: So Professor Fitzgerald is talking about the Thorn report.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 103 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Remuneration of certain senior staff in the University of Limerick and Institute of Technology Sligo (24 Jan 2019)

David Cullinane: Professor Fitzgerald has clarified that. We will not go into issues raised by whistleblower G regarding his or her own personal circumstances, although perhaps we should do so at some point in private session. I wish to address a number of allegations made by whistleblower G relating to the student recording systems. An allegation was made that possibly hundreds and certainly a large...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 103 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Remuneration of certain senior staff in the University of Limerick and Institute of Technology Sligo (24 Jan 2019)

David Cullinane: No, that was perhaps to improve the system. I refer to undertaking to look back on allegations or concerns raised by this whistleblower regarding degrees and grades which previous students were awarded that may have been understated and that it may have been the case that people were awarded results that were not correct. That is a very serious allegation which I put to the Comptroller and...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 103 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Remuneration of certain senior staff in the University of Limerick and Institute of Technology Sligo (24 Jan 2019)

David Cullinane: That is what Professor Fitzgerald is telling us, but we have been told things by the institution before which were not the case. I take what Professor Fitzgerald says at face value, that the trawl happened. However the whistleblower argued that it did not happen to the extent that it ought to have happened and that, rather than the single case which Professor Fitzgerald has identified,...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 103 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Remuneration of certain senior staff in the University of Limerick and Institute of Technology Sligo (24 Jan 2019)

David Cullinane: The university is examining it but I asked about an independent examination.