Results 15,101-15,120 of 21,499 for speaker:Mary Lou McDonald

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 7 - Management of Fixed Charge Notice System (23 Jan 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: So it is 39 officers who had acted outside of the process, as the Commissioner has put it.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 7 - Management of Fixed Charge Notice System (23 Jan 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: The Commissioner has made his position clear as regards the handing over of information from the PULSE system to third parties and we may revert to that issue shortly. Notwithstanding the fact that it was not 300 per day but 30 per day in terms of cancellation of these notices, in view of the fact that seasoned and senior officers with experience and so on were stepping outside of agreed...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 7 - Management of Fixed Charge Notice System (23 Jan 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: Can the Commissioner not appreciate that the nub of this issue in the public mind is the concern that was raised at the outset by Deputy Nolan? I refer to the view or perhaps more correctly stated, the worry, that whereas the law applies to the 95.45% of persons who get these notices, one has the 5% who enjoy a particular status or a particular relationship with a particular garda and to...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 7 - Management of Fixed Charge Notice System (23 Jan 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: ---- the rules do not apply.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 7 - Management of Fixed Charge Notice System (23 Jan 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: Can I just tell the Commissioner the reason I am making this point to him? He has consistently cited the 1.46 million of these charges that are made and has stated that out of that, there is only a dilemma, an issue or something irregular in respect of approximately 66,500 of them, as though that somehow resolves the matter and indicates the system is okay and there is not a problem. Does...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 7 - Management of Fixed Charge Notice System (23 Jan 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: Just so the Commissioner and I are clear for the remainder of this conversation, this is not about me taking a view on matters. I am trying to ascertain and establish facts here and it would be of some comfort to people not to so much hear the Commissioner say it is only so many in a given week or a given year because that does not resolve matters. Arguably, if as many as a single...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 7 - Management of Fixed Charge Notice System (23 Jan 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: ----- that in and of itself is problematic. However, it has been far-----

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 7 - Management of Fixed Charge Notice System (23 Jan 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: Let us.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 7 - Management of Fixed Charge Notice System (23 Jan 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: Okay.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 7 - Management of Fixed Charge Notice System (23 Jan 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: The Commissioner has made the point very fairly in respect of drawing conclusions from the information one would draw down from the PULSE system alone, on the fair basis that there is other background information. There might be a question mark over making an assertion based only on the PULSE records because there could be other corroborating information, such as letters or submissions of...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 7 - Management of Fixed Charge Notice System (23 Jan 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: I welcome the Commissioner and his colleagues to the committee. We have heard from him on the substantive issue of the striking out of fixed penalty notices. Would it be fair for me to summarise his position as follows? Of the notices issued, discretion was exercised in 2.57% of cases, a minimal number. Where there were difficulties, question marks or inconsistences in respect of those,...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 7 - Management of Fixed Charge Notice System (23 Jan 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: To reach the rank of superintendent, one would have some years’ service.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 7 - Management of Fixed Charge Notice System (23 Jan 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: The individuals who were confused or even a bit sloppy in respect of the guidelines which were in place would not have been rookies or new recruits but experienced officers. Is that the case?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 7 - Management of Fixed Charge Notice System (23 Jan 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: Yet they would have been confused in respect of their authority or jurisdiction to write off penalty points.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 7 - Management of Fixed Charge Notice System (23 Jan 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: I am not asking the Commissioner to be a mind reader. That would even be beyond his pay grade.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 7 - Management of Fixed Charge Notice System (23 Jan 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: That is another day’s work. I would have thought, having given consideration to these matters and in light of the Assistant Commissioner O’Mahoney’s work, that the Commissioner would have established why it was these officers at superintendent level thought that they could either choose knowingly to step outside the process or were just confused as regards it. I do not...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 7 - Management of Fixed Charge Notice System (23 Jan 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: It was December.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (23 Jan 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: Yes.

Charities (Amendment) Bill 2014: Second Stage (Resumed) [Private Members] (22 Jan 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: I commend my colleague Deputy Mac Lochlainn on his introduction of this Bill, which adds our party's voice to the demand that Government regulate the charity sector. I agree with the Minister of State that, undoubtedly, the majority of charities act properly. Even in those cases in which board members or executives have been found wanting, the staff providing the services within those...

Appointments to the Standards in Public Office Commission: Motions (22 Jan 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: -----or when the controversy arose the Minister could have given a commitment that the issue would be dealt with on the first day back. Instead, the Government was cranky on the issue. The Minister seems to be a little cranky still. Whether this was intended or not, the message went out that politicians took a view that if SIPO's work was delayed or hindered, it was really no big deal....