Results 1,781-1,800 of 5,601 for speaker:Paul McAuliffe

Public Accounts Committee: RTÉ Commercial Arrangements: Mr. Ryan Tubridy and Mr. Noel Kelly (11 Jul 2023)

Paul McAuliffe: That is great. That is important to get on the table. The difficult with that is that many of Mr. Tubridy's colleagues would have taken reductions and they would perceive this additional arrangement facilitated or arranged by RTÉ to be not in the spirit of what was happening at the time. I suppose Mr. Tubridy wanted at some point to go back into RTÉ, go into the canteen and be...

Public Accounts Committee: RTÉ Commercial Arrangements: Mr. Ryan Tubridy and Mr. Noel Kelly (11 Jul 2023)

Paul McAuliffe: Yes. However, the facts of the situation were that Mr. Tubridy received additional money and they did not.

Public Accounts Committee: RTÉ Commercial Arrangements: Mr. Ryan Tubridy and Mr. Noel Kelly (11 Jul 2023)

Paul McAuliffe: Other reductions.

Public Accounts Committee: RTÉ Commercial Arrangements: Mr. Ryan Tubridy and Mr. Noel Kelly (11 Jul 2023)

Paul McAuliffe: I fully accept that but the facts are before us and that is Mr. Tubridy's difficulty. It is everyone's difficulty.

Public Accounts Committee: RTÉ Commercial Arrangements: Mr. Ryan Tubridy and Mr. Noel Kelly (11 Jul 2023)

Paul McAuliffe: I want to turn to the invoice that was raised. There is an email in Mr. Kelly's pack on page 25 which appears to be from somebody in RTÉ which reads "Do not put any person's name on the Invoice. If he sends It back to me I will then sort everything else out". Who was that email from?

Public Accounts Committee: RTÉ Commercial Arrangements: Mr. Ryan Tubridy and Mr. Noel Kelly (11 Jul 2023)

Paul McAuliffe: So it is from an RTÉ staff member.

Public Accounts Committee: RTÉ Commercial Arrangements: Mr. Ryan Tubridy and Mr. Noel Kelly (11 Jul 2023)

Paul McAuliffe: Can Mr. Kelly provide the committee with the name of that person? I am happy if he wants to reflect on it.

Public Accounts Committee: RTÉ Commercial Arrangements: Mr. Ryan Tubridy and Mr. Noel Kelly (11 Jul 2023)

Paul McAuliffe: It looks very clear to me, as somebody responsible for public money, that when somebody says in an email not to put any person's name on the invoice, it is important for me to know who that was. I ask the witnesses to reflect on that and whether they can provide us with the name. I will ask RTÉ the same question. The second question is that on 7 May, a Microsoft Teams meeting was...

Public Accounts Committee: RTÉ Commercial Arrangements: Mr. Ryan Tubridy and Mr. Noel Kelly (11 Jul 2023)

Paul McAuliffe: A colleague of Mr. Kelly's. The fourth person who we have not been able to identify so far was a colleague of Mr. Kelly's. Again, this is useful information. I then turn to the issue of the invoices. I have to question Mr. Kelly on this point because I have the invoice for the first €75,000 here and also the invoices from the other two €75,000 payments. One is raised by...

Public Accounts Committee: RTÉ Commercial Arrangements: Mr. Ryan Tubridy and Mr. Noel Kelly (11 Jul 2023)

Paul McAuliffe: One contains the full description and the other two are without the full description, all relating to the same €75,000 and the arrangement with Renault. Mr. Kelly is the only one who raised these two invoices. It really strikes at the credibility of what he is saying that he treated one separately from the other. Even at RTÉ's instruction, Mr. Kelly treated these invoices...

Public Accounts Committee: RTÉ Commercial Arrangements: Mr. Ryan Tubridy and Mr. Noel Kelly (11 Jul 2023)

Paul McAuliffe: However, the invoices were raised with Mr. Kelly. Mr. Kelly has a fiduciary responsibility as director of his company. He raised two invoices for the same three payments. He raised them under different companies, for different reasons, and invoiced them to different people.

Public Accounts Committee: RTÉ Commercial Arrangements: Mr. Ryan Tubridy and Mr. Noel Kelly (11 Jul 2023)

Paul McAuliffe: This is my final point. Mr. Kelly is very clear when he says that, "I should stress that at this time we in NK Management had no idea who Astus was. We had no reason to think Astus was linked to RTE or that it was acting on behalf of RTE." Would he be surprised that his name is also mentioned elsewhere in the Astus account?

Public Accounts Committee: RTÉ Commercial Arrangements: Mr. Ryan Tubridy and Mr. Noel Kelly (11 Jul 2023)

Paul McAuliffe: It was the barter account. On 30 November 2018, there is a reference to €2,394 raised from a charity lunch, held by Noel Kelly in aid of Chernobyl.

Public Accounts Committee: RTÉ Commercial Arrangements: Mr. Ryan Tubridy and Mr. Noel Kelly (11 Jul 2023)

Paul McAuliffe: My understanding is this was obviously a fundraising lunch and I am not reflecting on the charity in any way

Public Accounts Committee: RTÉ Commercial Arrangements: Mr. Ryan Tubridy and Mr. Noel Kelly (11 Jul 2023)

Paul McAuliffe: Perhaps he might help us. If Mr. Kelly will tell us how that was invoiced in the past and had no connection with Astus, his story stacks up. If there is a previous invoice, and Mr. Kelly told somebody to invoice Astus for the charity lunch held, then the story does not. I do not have the facts before me; I am just asking the question.

Public Accounts Committee: RTÉ Commercial Arrangements: Mr. Ryan Tubridy and Mr. Noel Kelly (11 Jul 2023)

Paul McAuliffe: RTÉ told the charity to invoice Astus. Mr. Kelly did not know Astus was invoiced.

Public Accounts Committee: RTÉ Commercial Arrangements: Mr. Ryan Tubridy and Mr. Noel Kelly (11 Jul 2023)

Paul McAuliffe: I am taking it that Mr. Kelly accepts those are the facts in this situation.

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Local Authorities (6 Jul 2023)

Paul McAuliffe: The Ceann Comhairle got in ahead of me. I was going to make the same point but it comes with more force-----

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Local Authorities (6 Jul 2023)

Paul McAuliffe: When the point is made from the Chair, it is more helpful. I ask the Minister of State to reflect on that. I take his comments in the tone they are made because what they are essentially saying is that often in Ireland we do not devolve enough responsibility to local authorities and that we do not give them the powers to pursue it. What he said is that this is a matter for both the...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Local Authorities (6 Jul 2023)

Paul McAuliffe: As a Government TD who has supported housing, I welcome the 69 new units which will be developed in Cappaghfinn and launched by Fingal County Council very soon. The real regret is that in order for anyone to access that estate, for the cathaoirleach of Fingal County Council to cut the ribbon or for me to attend the opening ceremony or indeed for many of the families to enter the estate and...