Results 18,401-18,420 of 26,430 for speaker:David Cullinane

Public Accounts Committee: Caranua Financial Statements 2014 and 2015 (13 Apr 2017)

David Cullinane: Were terms of reference set out for Caranua? A mandate was given to Ms Higgins in terms of her role. Was that given by the Department?

Public Accounts Committee: Caranua Financial Statements 2014 and 2015 (13 Apr 2017)

David Cullinane: The legislation does that. I am wondering why Ms Higgins would have a needed a company to inform her as to what she needed to do. She was employed because she applied for the job, she has a certain skill set, she went for interview and got the job. Other people were working there and with the mandate she was given, she should have been able to do her job. Why was there a need to employ...

Public Accounts Committee: Caranua Financial Statements 2014 and 2015 (13 Apr 2017)

David Cullinane: Some €24,000 was spent on consultants. Has Ms Higgins project management experience?

Public Accounts Committee: Caranua Financial Statements 2014 and 2015 (13 Apr 2017)

David Cullinane: Have other staff in the organisation project management experience?

Public Accounts Committee: Caranua Financial Statements 2014 and 2015 (13 Apr 2017)

David Cullinane: Ms Higgins can understand why these questions would be put. This seems to be coming up a great deal in organisations funded by the State. We employ people to do a job and they go off and employ consultants at more cost.

Public Accounts Committee: Caranua Financial Statements 2014 and 2015 (13 Apr 2017)

David Cullinane: How much of the work of Caranua was outsourced? Ms Higgins mentioned something about that earlier.

Public Accounts Committee: Caranua Financial Statements 2014 and 2015 (13 Apr 2017)

David Cullinane: Outsourced as in work being done by outside organisations.

Public Accounts Committee: Caranua Financial Statements 2014 and 2015 (13 Apr 2017)

David Cullinane: None.

Public Accounts Committee: Caranua Financial Statements 2014 and 2015 (13 Apr 2017)

David Cullinane: Yes. How many agency staff would it have provided?

Public Accounts Committee: Caranua Financial Statements 2014 and 2015 (13 Apr 2017)

David Cullinane: Twelve. On page 6 of the briefing note that Ms Higgins provided, there is table 1 and I ask if it could be put up on screen. I want to raise an issue that is important in terms of doing a look back exercise which, unfortunately for us, is all that we can do. It has been acknowledged that the level of the service for survivors was poor and appalling in the past and, for them, this adds...

Public Accounts Committee: Caranua Financial Statements 2014 and 2015 (13 Apr 2017)

David Cullinane: Can Ms Higgins stick to the question I asked? I draw her attention to table 2, on the screen, which covers applications by years and associated activity. In 2015, the cost of salaries was €1.3 million, having jumped from €791,000 the previous year. The cost of salaries was €1.3 million in 2015 and €1.492 million in 2016. If we note the activity, 1,228 people...

Public Accounts Committee: Caranua Financial Statements 2014 and 2015 (13 Apr 2017)

David Cullinane: -----which was fewer than half number the previous year yet staff costs have increased. In 2014, 3,821 applied for the service and at that time the cost of staff salaries was only €791,000. At a time when 3,821 were applying for the service, the cost of staff salaries was €791,000 and at a time when 585 people were applying for the service the cost of staff salaries is...

Public Accounts Committee: Caranua Financial Statements 2014 and 2015 (13 Apr 2017)

David Cullinane: I do not doubt that is Ms Higgins's intention but the phrase "we are where we are" refers to a situation where the overall cost here is €1.5 billion of the overall cost of dealing with abuse.

Public Accounts Committee: Caranua Financial Statements 2014 and 2015 (13 Apr 2017)

David Cullinane: We dealt earlier with the contributions we are getting from the religious congregations, which is quite a small amount. Again, I do not accept the argument that we are where we are. Why do we always end up in that space? We get the forecasting wrong. We did not anticipate the level of activities there would be when the organisation was set up. The same problems keep recurring. People...

Public Accounts Committee: Caranua Financial Statements 2014 and 2015 (13 Apr 2017)

David Cullinane: Okay.

Public Accounts Committee: Caranua Financial Statements 2014 and 2015 (13 Apr 2017)

David Cullinane: I accept that. I have two more questions. The first concerns the counselling services that were provided. Were some of those provided by organisations funded exclusively by the religious orders, or organisations which are an extension of religious orders?

Public Accounts Committee: Caranua Financial Statements 2014 and 2015 (13 Apr 2017)

David Cullinane: Would survivors have been made aware that Towards Healing was funded by and was an extension of the religious orders?

Public Accounts Committee: Caranua Financial Statements 2014 and 2015 (13 Apr 2017)

David Cullinane: I am not saying there was a secret. I am asking if, when the service was provided, people were made aware, given the sensitivities involved. Does Ms Higgins understand what I am asking? Were they made aware?

Public Accounts Committee: Caranua Financial Statements 2014 and 2015 (13 Apr 2017)

David Cullinane: Does Ms Higgins think they should have been made aware?

Public Accounts Committee: Caranua Financial Statements 2014 and 2015 (13 Apr 2017)

David Cullinane: Will Ms Higgins find out if they were made aware?