Results 13,641-13,660 of 26,396 for speaker:David Cullinane
- Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 1 - President's Establishment (25 Sep 2018) David Cullinane: We do not know whether there is a constitutional reason.
- Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 1 - President's Establishment (25 Sep 2018) David Cullinane: Sorry, okay.
- Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 1 - President's Establishment (25 Sep 2018) David Cullinane: So there is. Mr. Fraser is saying that the view of the Government, including the permanent government, is that there is a constitutional block to responding to FOI requests.
- Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 1 - President's Establishment (25 Sep 2018) David Cullinane: Mr. Fraser does not respond because it is not covered.
- Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 1 - President's Establishment (25 Sep 2018) David Cullinane: Let me put it a different way. The policy decision that was made to omit the President's Establishment from FOI was a matter of policy and, as Mr. Fraser has said, it was also because of constitutional issues.
- Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 1 - President's Establishment (25 Sep 2018) David Cullinane: Okay. I would be interested to get our own opinion on that because whatever about the President being accountable back to both Houses of the Oireachtas, I am not quite sure how there would be a constitutional block to FOI requests being answered and why the President's Establishment could not be subject to FOI. I just do not-----
- Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 1 - President's Establishment (25 Sep 2018) David Cullinane: One of the reasons-----
- Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 1 - President's Establishment (25 Sep 2018) David Cullinane: My point is that one of the reasons given is because it is potentially unconstitutional.
- Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 1 - President's Establishment (25 Sep 2018) David Cullinane: I do not want the Chairman's advice. His advice is fine, but I am asking for legal advice.
- Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 1 - President's Establishment (25 Sep 2018) David Cullinane: That is a little bit disingenuous on the Chairman's part.
- Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 1 - President's Establishment (25 Sep 2018) David Cullinane: It is and you should allow me to say why. It was your request that we have this hearing. I did not seek it. You did. One of the reasons you sought it, which you stated at the last meeting, was that journalists submitted freedom of information, FOI, requests and were not given the information.
- Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 1 - President's Establishment (25 Sep 2018) David Cullinane: Okay but I still think it is valid for us to have an understanding of why it is omitted under the FOI legislation and maybe to get legal advice on it. I do not have a difficulty if it was policy decision or even if it was unconstitutional. That is fine. I just want a legal opinion on why it is the case. I am not agreeing or disagreeing. I am just looking for the logic behind it.
- Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 1 - President's Establishment (25 Sep 2018) David Cullinane: I fully appreciate the reason the audit committee was not established. I am not even going to go there. I would like to just ask Mr. McCarthy the genesis of putting an audit committee in place. Up to 2013 there was none there. Obviously at some point, a decision was made that we would put one in place. Where did that decision come from and how did it evolve?
- Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 1 - President's Establishment (25 Sep 2018) David Cullinane: How many sit on this audit committee?
- Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 1 - President's Establishment (25 Sep 2018) David Cullinane: Is that including the chair?
- Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 1 - President's Establishment (25 Sep 2018) David Cullinane: Are they all based in the Áras?
- Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 1 - President's Establishment (25 Sep 2018) David Cullinane: There are three members, including the chair. Do they meet monthly or quarterly?
- Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 1 - President's Establishment (25 Sep 2018) David Cullinane: May I make one request? It might be useful for us for future sittings as well. I do not know who could do this, but could we get an accountability chart in terms of who is responsible for what? We have Mr. Fraser, who is the Accounting Officer for one element of the spend. We are told we have maybe seven other accountable officers. May we have a breakdown of what they are accountable...
- Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 1 - President's Establishment (25 Sep 2018) David Cullinane: I think it would be straightforward. It would just be a matter of who would do it.
- Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 1 - President's Establishment (25 Sep 2018) David Cullinane: That is fine.