Results 13,981-14,000 of 34,663 for speaker:Seán Fleming

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 13 - Development of ICT Systems by the Department of Justice and Equality
Vote 24: Justice and Equality (26 Apr 2018)

Seán Fleming: The Department was the tenant. Is that right?

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 13 - Development of ICT Systems by the Department of Justice and Equality
Vote 24: Justice and Equality (26 Apr 2018)

Seán Fleming: The Department was the tenant. Was it not for some project? You mentioned a project.

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 13 - Development of ICT Systems by the Department of Justice and Equality
Vote 24: Justice and Equality (26 Apr 2018)

Seán Fleming: Is it possible that the contract was for €1.1 million but that only a fraction of the work had started and the contractor wanted €1.1 million before doing the rest of it?

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 13 - Development of ICT Systems by the Department of Justice and Equality
Vote 24: Justice and Equality (26 Apr 2018)

Seán Fleming: She is referring to assurance from another solicitor.

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 13 - Development of ICT Systems by the Department of Justice and Equality
Vote 24: Justice and Equality (26 Apr 2018)

Seán Fleming: Did the Department pay the legal fees for the other side?

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 13 - Development of ICT Systems by the Department of Justice and Equality
Vote 24: Justice and Equality (26 Apr 2018)

Seán Fleming: No.

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 13 - Development of ICT Systems by the Department of Justice and Equality
Vote 24: Justice and Equality (26 Apr 2018)

Seán Fleming: At this stage we will draw the discussion on this item to a conclusion, although this is far from over.

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 13 - Development of ICT Systems by the Department of Justice and Equality
Vote 24: Justice and Equality (26 Apr 2018)

Seán Fleming: Yes, but I will allow Deputy O'Connell to come in on other issues. On this issue, it is very important to read what is in front of us today, namely, the appropriation accounts for Vote 24, Department of Justice and Equality. The Comptroller and Auditor General in his report of 26 September 2017 on this matter heads the paragraph on page 7 as: "Non-effective Expenditure". The figure under...

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 13 - Development of ICT Systems by the Department of Justice and Equality
Vote 24: Justice and Equality (26 Apr 2018)

Seán Fleming: One of these days we will want Ms McPhillips to appear before us with a full team, including representatives from the State Solicitor's Office, the Office of Public Works, the professional architects who were advising the OPW and any other relevant parties to discuss this €3.89 million waste of taxpayer's money. That is what the Comptroller and Auditor General called it and it is very...

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 13 - Development of ICT Systems by the Department of Justice and Equality
Vote 24: Justice and Equality (26 Apr 2018)

Seán Fleming: The Department of Justice and Equality has a big job to do to convince the public, through this committee, of the logic of what happened because the Comptroller and Auditor General has said in lay man's English that it is a waste of taxpayer's money. The most difficult issue is the fact that the Department is struggling to explain this issue here today-----

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 13 - Development of ICT Systems by the Department of Justice and Equality
Vote 24: Justice and Equality (26 Apr 2018)

Seán Fleming: That suggests to me that if senior personnel in the Department - I am not being personal here - are struggling to understand or explain the details of this, then lessons will not be learned. The Department cannot learn any lessons if it does not know exactly what went wrong. Ms McPhillips has said that she does not know the details-----

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 13 - Development of ICT Systems by the Department of Justice and Equality
Vote 24: Justice and Equality (26 Apr 2018)

Seán Fleming: When the Department comes back-----

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 13 - Development of ICT Systems by the Department of Justice and Equality
Vote 24: Justice and Equality (26 Apr 2018)

Seán Fleming: We understand that. People buy and sell sites all the time and one solicitor gets documentation from the other and ticks the boxes when there is no dispute regarding the property or issues regarding rights of way or way leave. There are standard questionnaires upon which we thought people could rely. In any event, Ms McPhillips understands the point we are making. We want a detailed,...

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 13 - Development of ICT Systems by the Department of Justice and Equality
Vote 24: Justice and Equality (26 Apr 2018)

Seán Fleming: We also need information about the Revenue, in terms of-----

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 13 - Development of ICT Systems by the Department of Justice and Equality
Vote 24: Justice and Equality (26 Apr 2018)

Seán Fleming: -----how that figure was arrived at and how it was paid over so quickly. As Deputy O'Connell said, we also want to know how the €1.06 million was spent. There are lots of questions here and we would be remiss in our duty if we did not come back to this issue.

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 13 - Development of ICT Systems by the Department of Justice and Equality
Vote 24: Justice and Equality (26 Apr 2018)

Seán Fleming: There is probably good information on the files.

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 13 - Development of ICT Systems by the Department of Justice and Equality
Vote 24: Justice and Equality (26 Apr 2018)

Seán Fleming: The matter was fully concluded in 2016 but we are only looking at the 2016 accounts now.

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 13 - Development of ICT Systems by the Department of Justice and Equality
Vote 24: Justice and Equality (26 Apr 2018)

Seán Fleming: Yes, it was ongoing and is only now being brought to a conclusion. Does Deputy O'Connell have further questions?

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 13 - Development of ICT Systems by the Department of Justice and Equality
Vote 24: Justice and Equality (26 Apr 2018)

Seán Fleming: The NSSO handles the payroll centrally for all Government Departments. I ask Ms McPhillips to contact the NSSO and ask for an update on the situation in her Department.

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 13 - Development of ICT Systems by the Department of Justice and Equality
Vote 24: Justice and Equality (26 Apr 2018)

Seán Fleming: I have a few other questions. Asylum seeker accommodation is referenced on page 24 of the report and the amount paid for same was €64 million. Ms McPhillips told us earlier that there are about 5,300 asylum seekers in the system, with approximately 80% in private accommodation. That would mean that roughly 4,220 asylum seekers are in private accommodation. Therefore, the per annum...