Results 1,281-1,300 of 20,723 for speaker:Alan Kelly

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022 - Tusla-Child and Family Agency (29 Feb 2024)

Alan Kelly: Therefore, €65 million of an increase in the space of three or four years. That is incredible, is it not?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022 - Tusla-Child and Family Agency (29 Feb 2024)

Alan Kelly: Sorry, I do not want-----

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022 - Tusla-Child and Family Agency (29 Feb 2024)

Alan Kelly: If Ms Duggan could be very brief. I do not want to be interrupting her.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022 - Tusla-Child and Family Agency (29 Feb 2024)

Alan Kelly: The demand has driven it. My issue here is that this is not of Tusla's doing but it has to deal with it. I direct a question to Mr. Ó Conaill. There is a serious issue here as regards resources and it is not all about money. There is a huge staffing issue. I presume Ms Mannion would agree with that. How many vacant posts are there in the organisation, off the top of her head?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022 - Tusla-Child and Family Agency (29 Feb 2024)

Alan Kelly: In total across the organisation, how many posts are not permanent or have not been filled permanently?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022 - Tusla-Child and Family Agency (29 Feb 2024)

Alan Kelly: Okay, but how many posts are not filled? How many positions are not filled?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022 - Tusla-Child and Family Agency (29 Feb 2024)

Alan Kelly: What I am getting at here is to ask, from a departmental level, what has the Department done to help Tusla on this issue? It is quite obvious that the pay levels and the conditions for working in this organisation, working across the country and across various different layers within this, simply are not sustainable. I want to know what has Mr. Ó Conaill's Department done to help Ms...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022 - Tusla-Child and Family Agency (29 Feb 2024)

Alan Kelly: I saw that but I want to know what the Department has done over the past three to four years.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022 - Tusla-Child and Family Agency (29 Feb 2024)

Alan Kelly: I support that. That is no issue.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022 - Tusla-Child and Family Agency (29 Feb 2024)

Alan Kelly: I did not ask about funding. I want to know what the Department did to ensure that the people who will be employed by Tusla will work for it because their pay and conditions will be sufficient to allow them to take those jobs.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022 - Tusla-Child and Family Agency (29 Feb 2024)

Alan Kelly: Again, a waste of time. What is going to be done to increase the pay? Otherwise, people are not going to take these jobs.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022 - Tusla-Child and Family Agency (29 Feb 2024)

Alan Kelly: Has anything been done to increase pay? Forget about consultation and all of that. Consultation is fine and dandy. It is good; I get that. However, it is critical that the pay levels in this sector are increased. Otherwise, Tusla will not get workers.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022 - Tusla-Child and Family Agency (29 Feb 2024)

Alan Kelly: I have a limited amount of time. I ask Mr. Ó Conaill to provide all correspondence between his Department and the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform or with Tusla in respect of pay and conditions over the past three years. I want to ask Ms Duggan about a report by Mr. Jack Power in The Irish Times on the issue relating to Ideal Care...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022 - Tusla-Child and Family Agency (29 Feb 2024)

Alan Kelly: It seems that this organisation provides services under SEA. Basically, documentation was being-----

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022 - Tusla-Child and Family Agency (29 Feb 2024)

Alan Kelly: I will not name it.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022 - Tusla-Child and Family Agency (29 Feb 2024)

Alan Kelly: I wan to know how this happened. We have a scenario where an organisation was sub-contracted by Tusla, which, I presume and as outlined earlier, is under deep pressure. Documentation was not screened, there were issues with Garda vetting and yet the organisation involved got close on €10 million over a number of years from Ms Duggan's organisation. How in the name of God did this...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022 - Tusla-Child and Family Agency (29 Feb 2024)

Alan Kelly: I get all of that. How were they contracted in the first place? It is all very well saying-----

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022 - Tusla-Child and Family Agency (29 Feb 2024)

Alan Kelly: Wait one second. It is all very well saying that internal audit picked this up. Sometimes, internal audits are not only about money; they pick up on processes and all that sort of stuff. How was this organisation contracted in the first place?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022 - Tusla-Child and Family Agency (29 Feb 2024)

Alan Kelly: Did Tusla get that because it was told there was an issue or did it find it organically by means of the double lock?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022 - Tusla-Child and Family Agency (29 Feb 2024)

Alan Kelly: So nobody told Tusla about the organisation in question.