Results 18,601-18,620 of 26,685 for speaker:David Cullinane

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 96 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Child Abuse Inquiry and Redress (13 Apr 2017)

David Cullinane: Did Mr. Ó Foghlú say earlier that the Department expects to get all of the €128 million by 2018?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 96 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Child Abuse Inquiry and Redress (13 Apr 2017)

David Cullinane: The €128 million was based on an estimated cost of €250 million. The Comptroller and Auditor General highlighted in his report that the original forecast was for everything, including the cost of the commission, redress, supports and legal fees. Is that correct?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 96 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Child Abuse Inquiry and Redress (13 Apr 2017)

David Cullinane: For the commission and for the redress?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 96 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Child Abuse Inquiry and Redress (13 Apr 2017)

David Cullinane: There was a ballpark figure of €250 million, which will be €1.5 billion before this is finished. Is that correct?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 96 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Child Abuse Inquiry and Redress (13 Apr 2017)

David Cullinane: Even if that is stripped out, given the estimate was €250 million, the cost will be multiples of that and we can all accept that.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 96 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Child Abuse Inquiry and Redress (13 Apr 2017)

David Cullinane: The €128 million payout that was part of the indemnity agreement with the congregations was based on the forecast of €250 million, which was dramatically wrong. There is a huge variance between what was forecast and what will eventually be the cost. How was the forecasting done? Earlier in response to Teachta Connolly, Mr. Ó Foghlú referred to a lower number of...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 96 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Child Abuse Inquiry and Redress (13 Apr 2017)

David Cullinane: What was that based on?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 96 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Child Abuse Inquiry and Redress (13 Apr 2017)

David Cullinane: Information from whom or from where exactly?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 96 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Child Abuse Inquiry and Redress (13 Apr 2017)

David Cullinane: I will stop Mr. Ó Foghlú there because I do not want retrospective excuses. In real time, when somebody was making a decision and estimating a cost, what information did he or she have at the time? One can look back afterwards and say X, Y and Z was not envisaged. What information did the Department have at its disposal? This is not provided in the briefing document or in the...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 96 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Child Abuse Inquiry and Redress (13 Apr 2017)

David Cullinane: But the Department got it drastically wrong in terms of the cost.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 96 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Child Abuse Inquiry and Redress (13 Apr 2017)

David Cullinane: Because there can be no disputing that, when in this country do people take responsibility for that? Nobody to my knowledge has been held to account for that. Where is the transparency? Mr. Ó Foghlú is the Accounting Officer. He may not have been in that position at the time but given the State and the Department got this so wrong and the taxpayer is paying contributions that...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 96 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Child Abuse Inquiry and Redress (13 Apr 2017)

David Cullinane: Does Mr. Ó Foghlú believe just appearing before the Committee of Public Accounts is sufficient?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 96 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Child Abuse Inquiry and Redress (13 Apr 2017)

David Cullinane: We are now at a point where we are dependent on voluntary contributions from the congregations because the only legal responsibilities in relation to the amount agreed to are part of the indemnity agreement. Following the Ryan report, there was obviously outrage in this regard and the religious congregations stated they would make a contribution of €353 million. That was then reduced...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 96 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Child Abuse Inquiry and Redress (13 Apr 2017)

David Cullinane: There is no legal requirement at all. If we do not get one cent more from any of the organisations based on the voluntary commitments made, there is nothing we can do about it. Is that what Mr. Ó Foghlú is telling me?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 96 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Child Abuse Inquiry and Redress (13 Apr 2017)

David Cullinane: Is there no legal option open to us?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 96 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Child Abuse Inquiry and Redress (13 Apr 2017)

David Cullinane: There is no legal option open to us.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 96 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Child Abuse Inquiry and Redress (13 Apr 2017)

David Cullinane: Is Mr. Ó Foghlú telling me that of the €225.6 million committed to, he is confident that every cent will be paid?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 96 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Child Abuse Inquiry and Redress (13 Apr 2017)

David Cullinane: My point is we had a legal commitment of €128 million under the indemnity agreement. We then had voluntary offers, amounting to €353 million, and this figure was reduced to €225.6 million. Mr. Ó Foghlú is confident, notwithstanding valuations of properties, that he will get all of that sum. The activity of two of the congregations is somewhat problematic....

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 96 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Child Abuse Inquiry and Redress (13 Apr 2017)

David Cullinane: But they are not going beyond it in terms of the €120 million they initially offered-----

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 96 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Child Abuse Inquiry and Redress (13 Apr 2017)

David Cullinane: If they have not committed to transferring the lands, would they then not look at giving that sum of money in cash? Are we just going to decide that their withdrawal of the offer of lands worth €120 million is the end of it, or will we go back and ask what other contribution they can make?