Results 121-140 of 1,163 for speaker:Aidan Farrelly

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Procurement Contracts (7 Oct 2025)

Aidan Farrelly: 145. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if his Department has assessed whether publishing the estimated contract value for public procurement tenders inflates final bid prices; whether alternative approaches, such as value bands or undisclosed ceilings have been considered; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53772/25]

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Public Procurement Contracts (7 Oct 2025)

Aidan Farrelly: 155. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if he has updated public procurement guidelines in the context of public bodies purchasing goods and/or services produced and/or developed by Israeli companies. [53533/25]

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2024: Tusla - the Child and Family Agency (2 Oct 2025)

Aidan Farrelly: I welcome Ms Duggan and her colleagues. We had the opportunity to speak in the committee on children. It is great to have the opportunity to speak again here. I will reiterate quickly the points I made at the committee on children. Any conversation about the work of Tusla is always in the context of the wonderful impact on the ground that 99% of the time Tusla's workers have on the lives...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2024: Tusla - the Child and Family Agency (2 Oct 2025)

Aidan Farrelly: I am watching my time. That is perfect. I thank Ms Duggan. I appreciate it. I will move on to the additional workload that is coming with regard to the 42,000 children. How much does Ms Duggan think that will cost the agency?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2024: Tusla - the Child and Family Agency (2 Oct 2025)

Aidan Farrelly: Yes.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2024: Tusla - the Child and Family Agency (2 Oct 2025)

Aidan Farrelly: Has that figure been requested from the Department of public expenditure or the Minister?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2024: Tusla - the Child and Family Agency (2 Oct 2025)

Aidan Farrelly: What will the nature of those checks be? Who will conduct them? Will they be phone calls or visits? How will they be done?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2024: Tusla - the Child and Family Agency (2 Oct 2025)

Aidan Farrelly: Am I right then that the priority will be that the first round of checks will be automated?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2024: Tusla - the Child and Family Agency (2 Oct 2025)

Aidan Farrelly: We are not guaranteed that every child or parent will be communicated with in these checks. The first port of call will be State services that we expect them to be engaged with.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2024: Tusla - the Child and Family Agency (2 Oct 2025)

Aidan Farrelly: Okay. For example, if 10% of those 42,000 children were flagged and Tusla said there was an issue, how would the agency have coped in 2024, if it had received 4,000 referrals, creating a whole new level of workload? Is Tusla ready, like its chair says? Is it resourced to the extent it needs to be to do this work? My concern is that these checks will potentially be an administrative...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2024: Tusla - the Child and Family Agency (2 Oct 2025)

Aidan Farrelly: My concern is that Tusla will be asking the teaching community, youth workers or others to make assertions and judgments. If no clear terms of reference are offered to them, it is a big responsibility when they are also burdened by the work they are involved in. I am flagging that as opposed to questioning it at this point because it sounds like, based on those terms of reference, that it...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2024: Tusla - the Child and Family Agency (2 Oct 2025)

Aidan Farrelly: They are, but they are doing enough. This is an additional-----

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2024: Tusla - the Child and Family Agency (2 Oct 2025)

Aidan Farrelly: Tusla said it did not feel it was warranted at the time, but now it does. This came as a request from the Minister, even though, potentially, there were no child protection concerns. The only related thing here was Covid-19, but now we are prioritising child protection concerns as the first cohort of people we are going to communicate with. It seems very ad hoc, and that is not a slight...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2024: Tusla - the Child and Family Agency (2 Oct 2025)

Aidan Farrelly: It is carried over from year to year.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2024: Tusla - the Child and Family Agency (2 Oct 2025)

Aidan Farrelly: I thank Mr. Smyth for his time.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2024: Tusla - the Child and Family Agency (2 Oct 2025)

Aidan Farrelly: I thank the witnesses for staying with us. I will come back to the welfare checks and the 42,000. I am really open to the witnesses telling me that I am wrong. If I am then please do tell me. My concern is growing in terms of the breadth of work that is going to be consistent within these checks. Am I right to say that not one check has started yet? Yes. Right. I nearly failed maths...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2024: Tusla - the Child and Family Agency (2 Oct 2025)

Aidan Farrelly: I note on the information provided that there are approximately 5,300 whole-time equivalent staff within the agency at this point. That has been growing relatively impressively over the past five years. I have a curiosity within my spokesperson brief, if the information is available, to get a detailed breakdown of the types of roles of employees within the organisation. Perhaps someone...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2024: Tusla - the Child and Family Agency (2 Oct 2025)

Aidan Farrelly: In terms of the types of social care workers, social workers, and who is doing what.