Results 15,261-15,280 of 21,206 for speaker:Mary Lou McDonald
- Public Accounts Committee: Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (11 Dec 2013)
Mary Lou McDonald: Some suggestion was made in the course of the week that perhaps you would not appear before the committee. I need you to tell me that it was always your intention to come before this committee.
- Public Accounts Committee: Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (11 Dec 2013)
Mary Lou McDonald: If management, a member of the board or whomsoever was the appropriate person had approached you at any stage in respect of your salary and had set out the facts to you, in terms of the sourcing of the moneys, the current climate, public sector pay policy, the reputation and standing of the clinic and so on - all of the issues that are now at play in the public domain - would you have been...
- Public Accounts Committee: Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (11 Dec 2013)
Mary Lou McDonald: You would have considered it.
- Public Accounts Committee: Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (11 Dec 2013)
Mary Lou McDonald: Of course they do. Nobody is disputing that.
- Public Accounts Committee: Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (11 Dec 2013)
Mary Lou McDonald: Yes, it is.
- Public Accounts Committee: Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (11 Dec 2013)
Mary Lou McDonald: No. It is the manner of the appointment that is the problem. Of course the directors have duties that they have to fulfil. Nobody is gain-saying that but as a director of the Central Remedial Clinic, Mr. Nugent must be cognisant of the fact that the vast bulk of the clinic's funding comes from the HSE. It is public money. He also has to be cognisant of the fact that in association with...
- Public Accounts Committee: Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (11 Dec 2013)
Mary Lou McDonald: That is a diversion. Mr. Martin has changed his tune from half an hour ago in terms of what ---
- Public Accounts Committee: Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (11 Dec 2013)
Mary Lou McDonald: Excuse me. Mr. Martin gave a robust defence of the integrity, position and decision-making capacities of the directors. He cited company law and suggested that to respect the regulations, rules and oversight associated with substantial public moneys would somehow run counter to the standing of the board. I am putting it to him that is rubbish. It is a very lame defence of what went on...
- Public Accounts Committee: Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (11 Dec 2013)
Mary Lou McDonald: Would Mr. Nugent accept now, with the benefit of hindsight, that the board has failed in that? In fact, the actions of the directors, collectively, have potentially undermined the ethos of the clinic and have, one imagines, caused terrible distress for the staff and users of the services. They have also gravely dented public confidence, the public upon which the CRC relies for charitable...
- Public Accounts Committee: Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (11 Dec 2013)
Mary Lou McDonald: That is not the issue and Mr. Nugent well knows it. The issue here is about the board, when making a senior appointment, going through a process that is open, transparent and beyond reproach. I would imagine that in any set of circumstances for a service such as the CRC, that would be the standard to be applied but particularly so when the clinic is in receipt of substantial public moneys....
- Public Accounts Committee: Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (11 Dec 2013)
Mary Lou McDonald: Okay. I thank Mr. Kiely for that but none the less, there are 278 posts. I do not want to quibble about it.
- Public Accounts Committee: Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (11 Dec 2013)
Mary Lou McDonald: Will Mr. Nugent or Mr. Kiely describe the categories of staff that encompasses?
- Public Accounts Committee: Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (11 Dec 2013)
Mary Lou McDonald: I thank Mr. Kiely. Is that not the fabric of the Central Remedial Clinic? They are the people who so excellently and in such a dedicated fashion care for people with disabilities. Their record speaks for itself and their public reputation has been outstanding, and remains so. Would Mr. Kiely not agree?
- Public Accounts Committee: Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (11 Dec 2013)
Mary Lou McDonald: Curiously enough, they are also people who were never considered for additional payments or top-ups - do not mind the vocabulary - from the clinic. Is that not an interesting thing? I will tell the witnesses why I raise it and why it struck me so forcibly. I read a letter from Mr. Nugent to Mr. Leo Kinsella, regional director of operations, HSE Dublin north east, dated 19 July 2013. Ms...
- Public Accounts Committee: Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (11 Dec 2013)
Mary Lou McDonald: I think everybody would applaud those. Mr. Nugent indicated to me that the average charitable income garnered through charity and the lottery is approximately €1.5 million per annum.
- Public Accounts Committee: Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (11 Dec 2013)
Mary Lou McDonald: I put it to Mr. Nugent that the total top-up bill per annum was working out at €280,000.
- Public Accounts Committee: Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (11 Dec 2013)
Mary Lou McDonald: That is a very substantial portion of the moneys raised through the generosity of people and public confidence in the clinic.
- Public Accounts Committee: Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (11 Dec 2013)
Mary Lou McDonald: I do not understand.
- Public Accounts Committee: Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (11 Dec 2013)
Mary Lou McDonald: I am very conversant with the FEMPI legislation, which was not simply aimed at people at the upper scales. FEMPI hit people in public service grades across the board like a hammer-----
- Public Accounts Committee: Section 38 - Agencies Remuneration (11 Dec 2013)
Mary Lou McDonald: -----including people on very low salaries.