Results 13,841-13,860 of 26,610 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: Yes.
- 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 not hidden.
- 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: The full costs are there. All of the additional costs, whether relating to the Garda Síochána, defence, foreign affairs or other matters, are there for us to see.
- 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 Mr. Fraser the Accounting Officer for all of that spend or just the €3.8 million?
- 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 Mr. Fraser the Accounting Officer for the allocation to the Office of Public Works, which accounted for €2.4 million in 2016?
- 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: Yes.
- 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 there are multiple Accounting Officers responsible for the spend of the Presidency in its entirety. Mr. Fraser is responsible for a portion of it but not all of 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: But that Vote is for a certain element of the overall cost-----
- 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: -----which is less than half.
- 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 other Accounting Officers-----
- 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 seven others. That is interesting. I understand the constitutional position, but with regard to scrutiny or accountability of the spend, there is a block, or certainly a practice, that Mr. Fraser does not respond to freedom of information, FOI, requests from people outside the Oireachtas. In the letter that Mr. Fraser sent to this committee he quite rightly pointed out that the...
- 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 know it is, but is that the law because politicians, in their wisdom, felt it should be done or is-----
- 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 did not finish the question. Is there a constitutional impediment to the Áras being subject to FOI?
- 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: To be fair to Mr. Fraser, he might not be able to answer this, but was advice received from the Attorney General at the time the Act was brought in and when the policy decision was made that the Office of the President should not be subject to FOI? Obviously there was some wisdom there and Mr. Fraser has given us some insight into why it was the case.
- 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-----