Results 14,201-14,220 of 21,498 for speaker:Mary Lou McDonald

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report and Appropriation Accounts of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (3 Jul 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: I do not mean to detract from the excellence of the work that is done at the clinic or, on a personal level, from the considerable contribution of Mr. Goulding's family when I say that one of the difficulties the public may have had with the operation of the clinic was the sense that, in some ways, it was almost regarded as a personal fiefdom by some people. I am sure Mr. Goulding, who would...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report and Appropriation Accounts of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (3 Jul 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: I presume Mr. Goulding's involvement with the clinic will not end now. I presume he will have some ongoing relationship with it. Perhaps he will serve on the board again at some future date.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report and Appropriation Accounts of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (3 Jul 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: In light of that, I assume Mr. Goulding now recognises and accepts that public pay policies and standard procedures for recruitment to senior positions have to be respected.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report and Appropriation Accounts of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (3 Jul 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: There was no legal impediment in terms of the recruitment of the CEO. Is there anything Mr. Goulding would like to say while he is before this committee? I am thinking particularly of the other employees of the clinic who have come through all of this. Is there anything Mr. Goulding wants to say to them about this entire debacle?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report and Appropriation Accounts of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (3 Jul 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: Would Mr. Goulding like to apologise for the mistakes he made on his watch?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report and Appropriation Accounts of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (3 Jul 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: Mr. Cregan made what I believe are three fairly damning findings on the Central Remedial Clinic, goodwill or no goodwill, which raise serious questions. May I check with him if I am correct in stating that his finding was that, first, there was a deliberate and artificial split in salary, in other words, there was a deliberate strategy to evade public sector pay cuts?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report and Appropriation Accounts of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (3 Jul 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: That is Mr. Cregan's finding. Second, there was knowingly a disregard of the terms of the service level agreement in respect of the appointment of the new CEO, Mr. Conlan.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report and Appropriation Accounts of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (3 Jul 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: I think that is accepted. Third, as I understand it, Mr. Cregan asserts that friends and supporters of CRC was contrived in a way that was almost to keep its revenue stream out of sight of the HSE and therefore maximise the level of State funding to the clinic. Is that correct?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report and Appropriation Accounts of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (3 Jul 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: And out of sight of the HSE. Mr. Cregan studied the minutes and discussions, and what I am trying to establish is whether that was explicitly stated and whether there were conversations stating that this was the most efficient way to do things to maximise the clinic's State stream of income.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report and Appropriation Accounts of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (3 Jul 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: I thank Mr. Cregan. Will Mr. Cregan explain to me his recommendation as regards the red-circling of certain salaries that are clearly still out of kilter with public sector pay policy? How many people are involved and, briefly, why has he arrived at that finding?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report and Appropriation Accounts of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (3 Jul 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: It is until 2015?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report and Appropriation Accounts of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (3 Jul 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: Why would it take until 2015 to do that? There are only a small number of people so why could it not be sorted out now?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report and Appropriation Accounts of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (3 Jul 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: Is is Mr. Cregan's argument that it is the path of least resistance?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report and Appropriation Accounts of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (3 Jul 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: Although Mr. Cregan has carried out his work very diligently, I think he has agreed with me that he is part of the HSE apparatus that was not as assertive or vigilant as it might have been in respect of the breaches of public pay policy in the CRC and bringing it into line with public pay. Why is he, as a representative of the funder and the statutory agency that is the guardian of public...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report and Appropriation Accounts of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (3 Jul 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: Yes, but if Mr. Cregan cannot answer it on behalf of the HSE, I will ask Ms McGuinness.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report and Appropriation Accounts of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (3 Jul 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: I thank Mr. Cregan.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report and Appropriation Accounts of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (3 Jul 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: The big difficulty with that is that whatever the legal niceties, the vast majority of people who work in the clinic, contract or no contract, had their salaries cut by way of emergency legislation.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report and Appropriation Accounts of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (3 Jul 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: Every other employee has no option, as there is no opt-out in terms of staying within the salary norms. As Mr. Cregan knows, and he has put it very succinctly in his report, under public pay policy a section 38 organisation is not entitled to pay remuneration above a rate as reduced in accordance with that policy or any general agreement on pay. In other words, the organisation does not...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report and Appropriation Accounts of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (3 Jul 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: Is it not really important that we hammer that message home? With a view to rebuilding confidence in the CRC and every other section 38 organisation, there is no option. It is not à la carteand one does not apply public pay policy willy-nilly or in a preferential manner. The policy is the policy, regardless of whether one is the CEO, the nurse or the carer. It does not matter as all...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report and Appropriation Accounts of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive
Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (3 Jul 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: I know Mr Cregan has said that. I wish both Mr. Timmins and Ms Manahan good luck in their respective roles. May I ask them to confirm that they understand that all employees, including Ms Manahan in her role as CEO, are in fact public servants and are bound by public sector pay policy, standards and norms?