Results 14,341-14,360 of 27,087 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: 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.
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (20 Sep 2018)
David Cullinane: What is the logic or reasoning behind examining this in the first place? I have no difficulty with scrutinising any set of accounts and if a proposal is made, I will support it. We have the letter from the Accounting Officer. However, the accounts are audited by the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General and I might put a number of questions to him before we proceed. If his office...
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (20 Sep 2018)
David Cullinane: With respect, the proposal came from the Chairman. We have a great deal to do but let us not rush things either. We have a responsibility to ask questions before we proceed to bring people in, especially if an Accounting Officer has raised concerns himself and written to us. I am, therefore, asking the Comptroller and Auditor General about the work his office has done. Second, my...
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (20 Sep 2018)
David Cullinane: Who does?
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (20 Sep 2018)
David Cullinane: What body scrutinises those?
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (20 Sep 2018)
David Cullinane: That is the Comptroller and Auditor General's audit.
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (20 Sep 2018)
David Cullinane: Is the issue then that the Accounting Officer, or accountable officer, is saying he cannot answer questions because it would be unconstitutional? That seems to be what he is saying. Mr. McCarthy says he audits the accounts in exactly the same way, signs off on them and gives an opinion. I imagine if there were an issue, there would be exchanges between management in Áras an...
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (20 Sep 2018)
David Cullinane: The Comptroller and Auditor General does that in the course of all of the audits of all Departments and we have an opportunity to scrutinise them. The problem here is that we are being told we do not have an opportunity to scrutinise these accounts in the same way due to legal or constitutional issues. Is that not what Mr. Fraser is suggesting?
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (20 Sep 2018)
David Cullinane: That is a suggestion but he is the person saying it and he is the person coming in. We may need to get some clarity on that. Do we have legal advice as to what we can or cannot do and what we can or cannot ask?
- Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (20 Sep 2018)
David Cullinane: However, he does not have a duty to explain how the money is spent. I imagine he will say he has allocated the money.