Results 14,681-14,700 of 26,804 for speaker:John McGuinness

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (11 Jun 2015)

John McGuinness: No, not yet.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (11 Jun 2015)

John McGuinness: We are waiting on that response from the Department. It will arrive in due course. I have noticed that the definition members might apply to the word "urgency" may not be the same as is applied by the Departments and Government agencies we are dealing with.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (11 Jun 2015)

John McGuinness: We will have to inform them when they come in as to what we mean by urgent. We will deal with correspondence. There is correspondence from Mr. Mark Griffin, Secretary General of the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, following up on our meeting on 7 May 2015. It is to be noted and published. Item 3A.2 is correspondence from Ms Clare McGrath, chairperson of the...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (11 Jun 2015)

John McGuinness: That is why I am saying we will revisit this batch of correspondence, which covers a considerable amount of ground. In individual correspondence, there is correspondence from Mr. Tom Boland, CEO of the Higher Education Authority, regarding the GMIT investigation of plagiarism. It is to be noted.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (11 Jun 2015)

John McGuinness: We are dealing with this item of correspondence now. The second response from the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport is similar. The correspondence the Deputy mentioned refers to €436,000 and it raises many other questions. We need to have a further discussion on it. As with the previous correspondence, I suggest that items 3B.1 and 3B.2 should be discussed next week so...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (11 Jun 2015)

John McGuinness: The issue raised by the Deputy is a matter for the second half of this meeting. Prior to commencement of that part of the meeting, the committee will hear legal advice from our parliamentary legal advisers. Following the request from members that the Department of Finance officials would re-appear before the committee to correct the record, and the desire of the officials also to do so, it...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (11 Jun 2015)

John McGuinness: The committee will suspend at 12.30 p.m. for 15 minutes, following which it will resume with the Department of Finance officials. My view is that once we do not stray into the specifics of the inquiry, we can deal generally with all other aspects. However, that is a matter subject to the legal advice we receive when we come back.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (11 Jun 2015)

John McGuinness: They have been told that is what we intend to do. Whether the letter sent to us by the Department limits that to beyond what we believe the limits are is another matter. We will deal with this during the next part of the meeting.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (11 Jun 2015)

John McGuinness: We now move to documents relating to today's meeting. Nos. 3C.1 to 3C.6 are briefing documents and opening statements relating to today's meeting, to be noted and published. We now move to reports, statements and accounts received since our meeting on 28 May. Perhaps the Comptroller and Auditor General would like to comment on some of the outcomes arising in this regard.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (11 Jun 2015)

John McGuinness: In regard to NAMA, the committee has received a number of pieces of correspondence on NAMA, one of which was received only this week and is due for circulation tomorrow and relates to complaints from an individual regarding a lack of engagement, feelings of being bullied and difficulties around organising meetings to try to resolve issues. We discussed similar complaints from another...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (11 Jun 2015)

John McGuinness: It escapes their attention because they do not seem to bother.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (11 Jun 2015)

John McGuinness: If such an agency or section dealt with non-competitive procurement in the private sector and it did not function after six months, it would probably be fired.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (11 Jun 2015)

John McGuinness: If I were getting taxpayers' money, I might not do as much. The fact of the matter is it is being paid to look after taxpayers' money and is not doing so. Every week some agency or another comes before the committee which is not complying with procurement. We also have issues such as that raised by Deputy Connaughton this morning with regard to €436,000. No one seems to cry stop....

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (11 Jun 2015)

John McGuinness: We will.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (11 Jun 2015)

John McGuinness: I do not want to go into a full debate because we must move on. We are caught for time.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (11 Jun 2015)

John McGuinness: We will take a note on that.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (11 Jun 2015)

John McGuinness: We will ask the Comptroller and Auditor General, the clerk and the liaison officer to put together that work and include in that the last meetings with the groups that made submissions and any progress that was made. We agreed the work programme the last day and had intended to finalise reports. However, due to the clerk not being available, we will postpone that until next week. Is...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (11 Jun 2015)

John McGuinness: Yes, it is being completed. We have two reports to publish which we were to do this week. Unfortunately, as I said, due to the death of the clerk’s mother, we will postpone these. The docklands report will be completed immediately after that.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (11 Jun 2015)

John McGuinness: We can do that for next week.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (11 Jun 2015)

John McGuinness: Arising from that meeting, members were asked to give some names to the clerk and a meeting would be arranged thereafter, depending on who may have wanted to come forward. We will deal with that next week.