Results 12,921-12,940 of 28,162 for speaker:Catherine Murphy

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (7 Nov 2019)

Catherine Murphy: Not backdating is another issue that was raised by some of the staff. When they changed contracts an issue arose about not backdating contracts.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (7 Nov 2019)

Catherine Murphy: The correspondence came to me and given that the Committee of Public Accounts was already dealing with the matter, I forwarded it.

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Employment Affairs and Social Protection
Chapter 12 - Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 13 - Timeliness of Income Support Claim Processing
Chapter 14 - Customer Service - Development of Income Support Application Forms (7 Nov 2019)

Catherine Murphy: I apologise for having to leave earlier. We do not do the bilocation very well here. I apologise if I have missed something where Mr. McKeon has given an answer. I note the point about some of the online payments and the need for an identifier. I will come back to the public services card after I have asked a few other questions. I acknowledge that some of the payments made online, such...

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Employment Affairs and Social Protection
Chapter 12 - Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 13 - Timeliness of Income Support Claim Processing
Chapter 14 - Customer Service - Development of Income Support Application Forms (7 Nov 2019)

Catherine Murphy: To how many people or tenancies does that figure relate?

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Employment Affairs and Social Protection
Chapter 12 - Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 13 - Timeliness of Income Support Claim Processing
Chapter 14 - Customer Service - Development of Income Support Application Forms (7 Nov 2019)

Catherine Murphy: Okay. That is the figure for 2019.

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Employment Affairs and Social Protection
Chapter 12 - Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 13 - Timeliness of Income Support Claim Processing
Chapter 14 - Customer Service - Development of Income Support Application Forms (7 Nov 2019)

Catherine Murphy: There are much fewer community welfare officers than there used to be. Obviously Intreo centres-----

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Employment Affairs and Social Protection
Chapter 12 - Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 13 - Timeliness of Income Support Claim Processing
Chapter 14 - Customer Service - Development of Income Support Application Forms (7 Nov 2019)

Catherine Murphy: We might get those numbers at some point. There was a supplementary budget. Where did that additional money go? Was it within the Department? There was a supplementary budget of €7.8 million. The budget went from €36 million to €42 million.

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Employment Affairs and Social Protection
Chapter 12 - Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 13 - Timeliness of Income Support Claim Processing
Chapter 14 - Customer Service - Development of Income Support Application Forms (7 Nov 2019)

Catherine Murphy: I am referring to the figures on pages 20 and 25.

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Employment Affairs and Social Protection
Chapter 12 - Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 13 - Timeliness of Income Support Claim Processing
Chapter 14 - Customer Service - Development of Income Support Application Forms (7 Nov 2019)

Catherine Murphy: Okay.

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Employment Affairs and Social Protection
Chapter 12 - Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 13 - Timeliness of Income Support Claim Processing
Chapter 14 - Customer Service - Development of Income Support Application Forms (7 Nov 2019)

Catherine Murphy: It is included in that.

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Employment Affairs and Social Protection
Chapter 12 - Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 13 - Timeliness of Income Support Claim Processing
Chapter 14 - Customer Service - Development of Income Support Application Forms (7 Nov 2019)

Catherine Murphy: I will move on to something else. I refer to the administration expenses.

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Employment Affairs and Social Protection
Chapter 12 - Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 13 - Timeliness of Income Support Claim Processing
Chapter 14 - Customer Service - Development of Income Support Application Forms (7 Nov 2019)

Catherine Murphy: Sometimes accounts-----

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Employment Affairs and Social Protection
Chapter 12 - Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 13 - Timeliness of Income Support Claim Processing
Chapter 14 - Customer Service - Development of Income Support Application Forms (7 Nov 2019)

Catherine Murphy: The amount of money being used predominantly for housing demonstrates the crisis we are currently in. I just wanted to make that point. I refer to administrative expenses. Bank charges of €2.2 million and negative interest of 1.1% were incurred in 2018. I ask the witnesses to explain how the Department receives money and whether there are ways of reducing or avoiding the amount...

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Employment Affairs and Social Protection
Chapter 12 - Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 13 - Timeliness of Income Support Claim Processing
Chapter 14 - Customer Service - Development of Income Support Application Forms (7 Nov 2019)

Catherine Murphy: I have a number of topics to go through so I will try to be succinct. Has the Department carried out an evaluation of how much of that money is due to transactions, bank charges and so on? Has the Department evaluated the cost-effectiveness of An Post, for example?

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Employment Affairs and Social Protection
Chapter 12 - Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 13 - Timeliness of Income Support Claim Processing
Chapter 14 - Customer Service - Development of Income Support Application Forms (7 Nov 2019)

Catherine Murphy: Mr. McKeon might tell us how significant that difference is. I ask him to give us a note on that.

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Employment Affairs and Social Protection
Chapter 12 - Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 13 - Timeliness of Income Support Claim Processing
Chapter 14 - Customer Service - Development of Income Support Application Forms (7 Nov 2019)

Catherine Murphy: Okay. In today's correspondence we received a reply from Mr. McKeon on the public services card. It included an assessment of the public services card project which outlines what is or is not done and what stage everything is at. The benefits realisation plan does not appear to have been assessed. The organisation's capacity to undertake the project does not seem to have had a full...

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Employment Affairs and Social Protection
Chapter 12 - Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 13 - Timeliness of Income Support Claim Processing
Chapter 14 - Customer Service - Development of Income Support Application Forms (7 Nov 2019)

Catherine Murphy: I noted that from Mr. McKeon's opening statement.

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Employment Affairs and Social Protection
Chapter 12 - Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 13 - Timeliness of Income Support Claim Processing
Chapter 14 - Customer Service - Development of Income Support Application Forms (7 Nov 2019)

Catherine Murphy: I thank Mr. McKeon. On the ongoing issue in regard to the Data Protection Commissioner, what questions were asked? I am not asking for the legal advice because I know that it will not be available. Rather, I am asking what queries and concerns Mr. McKeon raised with the Attorney General.

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Employment Affairs and Social Protection
Chapter 12 - Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 13 - Timeliness of Income Support Claim Processing
Chapter 14 - Customer Service - Development of Income Support Application Forms (7 Nov 2019)

Catherine Murphy: Can Mr. McKeon identify why uptake of myGov is quite a distance behind that of the public services cards?

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Employment Affairs and Social Protection
Chapter 12 - Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 13 - Timeliness of Income Support Claim Processing
Chapter 14 - Customer Service - Development of Income Support Application Forms (7 Nov 2019)

Catherine Murphy: How much has been spent on myGov?