Results 12,701-12,720 of 20,099 for speaker:Brian Stanley
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (22 Jun 2021)
Brian Stanley: I have a question for the Comptroller and Auditor General. What the Deputy is saying about bringing it to the attention of the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, would be worthwhile. Can the Comptroller and Auditor General clarify if it is possible for us to question this with the Revenue Commissioners? If a settlement was made with the Revenue Commissioners, can we question them?
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (22 Jun 2021)
Brian Stanley: Obviously, we would not expect to get the details of any individual, but you are saying they possibly would be reluctant to give them in respect of a particular corporate body.
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (22 Jun 2021)
Brian Stanley: Okay.
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (22 Jun 2021)
Brian Stanley: On the day they were before the committee, the Deputy is correct in outlining the way matters proceeded until I asked them and got them finally to admit that there had been a settlement or settlements. However, they admit that there were 11 settlements. That related to personal injury. Six of the settlements referred to exceeded €20,000. We will seek to follow this up with the...
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (22 Jun 2021)
Brian Stanley: Is the Deputy saying we should not bring it in on 13 July and bring it in on-----
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (22 Jun 2021)
Brian Stanley: We are awaiting a response to the invitation. I am informed that the invitation has been issued.
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (22 Jun 2021)
Brian Stanley: This is enormously frustrating. We delayed our meeting at the turn of the year because this report was not ready. We pushed it from November out to January and from January out to February. At the meeting on 9 February, they told us that we would have the report in March but we did not receive it then. Every month has gone by since. It seems to be moribund in the Department, which is...
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (22 Jun 2021)
Brian Stanley: There is a national maternity hospital to be built as well. In the correspondence from the committee to the Department, we asked for a copy of the report prior to the meeting on 13 July. We agreed that at our last meeting. If that was not possible, we asked for an up-to-date report at that meeting regarding the matters outlined by the Department such as the final cost and a timeframe for...
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (22 Jun 2021)
Brian Stanley: We dealt with the four points. Is the Deputy proposing that we take further action on this?
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (22 Jun 2021)
Brian Stanley: I ask that any member whose is finished speaking to turn off their hand signal, please. Does Deputy Murphy wish to make a further contribution?
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (22 Jun 2021)
Brian Stanley: A great deal of money is being spent and we went through this with An Bord Pleanála officials on the day that they appeared before the committee on the in excess of €8 million, which was a significant percentage of their budget of in the region of €22 million, if I recall correctly, being spent on legal cases. Most of these were no-hope cases from An Bord Pleanála's...
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (22 Jun 2021)
Brian Stanley: I thank the Deputy. The issue is outside of the remit of the Committee of Public Accounts, but is valid. Concern on the issue of the data centres has surfaced at this committee on a number of occasions recently in the context of the potential problems of overheating the grid, the demands on electricity and the effect on our climate change and carbon reduction targets. It was announced...
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (22 Jun 2021)
Brian Stanley: An Bord Pleanála will deal with the individual planning applications but the Deputy is correct in referring to a broader issue, which needs to be addressed before we have the lights going out because of data centres and the demand on the grid. We will also revert to An Bord Pleanála in respect of the information referred to by all three Deputies. Is that agreed?
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (22 Jun 2021)
Brian Stanley: Thank you, we will do that. No. 642B from Ms Mary Ellen Ring, Chair of the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission, GSOC, dated 10 June 202, is a response to our request for further information in relation to the workload and resourcing of GSOC. It is clear from the correspondence that GSOC’s workload is increasing but there has not been a corresponding increase in personnel....
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (22 Jun 2021)
Brian Stanley: I think its letter is nearly like a plea for help. There is also a second item of correspondence. It surprised me that in a force of 14,500, in 2020 a total of 572 criminal investigations were opened. That is an increase from 485 in 2019. In 2020, there were 150 disciplinary cases opened, which is also a slight increase from 148 in 2019. Those seem very high figures related to the size...
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (22 Jun 2021)
Brian Stanley: Having heard from the Comptroller and Auditor General, does Deputy Carthy wish to make a proposal?
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (22 Jun 2021)
Brian Stanley: Given the figures GSOC has supplied, I can see how it is overworked if it has only 40 investigators and it is dealing with that number of cases in any given year, namely, 572 criminal investigations and 150 disciplinary cases. That is a very substantial number. We will await the clarification from Mr. McCarthy on the 2020 audit and make a decision on it then. Is that agreed? Agreed. ...
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (22 Jun 2021)
Brian Stanley: Where will move onto the next category of correspondence, namely, category C. No. 600C is quite concerning. It is anonymous correspondence relating to Galway 2020, which was forwarded to this committee by the Joint Committee on Media, Tourism, Arts, Culture, Sport and the Gaeltacht, dated 19 May 2021. At our meeting of 18 May we had agreed to make inquiries in relation to expenditure on...
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (22 Jun 2021)
Brian Stanley: At our meeting of 18 May we agreed to make inquiries in relation to expenditure on Galway 2020, and we await responses from the Department and both local authorities in Galway. It was issued on 14 June.
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (22 Jun 2021)
Brian Stanley: The correspondence was issued on 14 June and normally people would be given two weeks, in terms of working days, to reply.