Results 19,101-19,120 of 28,162 for speaker:Catherine Murphy

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (21 Sep 2017)

Catherine Murphy: The imminent report that has been imminent for months.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (21 Sep 2017)

Catherine Murphy: When Mr. O'Brien was with us earlier in the year, he told us that we would be provided with the report imminently. He then came back and revised his commitment. He claimed that he had not been provided with the report, it had to be given to the people who would be named in it, and there were a whole lot of different things that he had not anticipated. We had him back when the inquiry was...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (21 Sep 2017)

Catherine Murphy: Yes.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (21 Sep 2017)

Catherine Murphy: While it is often very positive when an inquiry is set up, one of the frustrating things is that it closes down other lines of inquiry on things. We need to learn some lessons on that as it possibly closes things down inappropriately. For example, someone who has submitted a freedom of information request before an inquiry has been set up cannot be refused that reply on the basis that an...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (21 Sep 2017)

Catherine Murphy: May I just say-----

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (21 Sep 2017)

Catherine Murphy: I take slight issue here; this is very much within our remit. It is about money.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (21 Sep 2017)

Catherine Murphy: If the Committee of Public Accounts is not about that, I do not know what it is about.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (21 Sep 2017)

Catherine Murphy: Sure.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (21 Sep 2017)

Catherine Murphy: This is not just a matter for the justice committee; it is also a matter for the transport committee because there is a road safety element to it. I think the Road Safety Authority reports to the transport committee. It is a matter for both. I had a very good look at some numbers a few years ago. They did not correlate to the areas where one sees signs showing how many people were killed...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (21 Sep 2017)

Catherine Murphy: A road that is just going in one direction.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (21 Sep 2017)

Catherine Murphy: It is.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (21 Sep 2017)

Catherine Murphy: I agree that this is something very intangible. How can one say a life was saved as a consequence of a change in behaviour that resulted from one of these installations being on a road? I agree that I do not think we will be able to delve into areas other than the contractual element. It is as much to do with transport as it is to do with justice.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (21 Sep 2017)

Catherine Murphy: I am on the transport committee and the Road Safety Authority came into us. Twenty years ago or more, some work was done to arrive at a metric to justify an upgrade of a road based on the number of fatalities. Every life is precious but a number was arrived at to give some criterion for doing it. It is perfectly possible to direct changes where there is a high level of fatality.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (21 Sep 2017)

Catherine Murphy: Prior to the liquidation, there was a very unhappy relationship between the Department of Finance and the IBRC. I would have thought that there would have been additional scrutiny or an impeccable oversight arrangement, given that these are distressed assets which are essentially owned by the Irish people. Prior to the liquidation, the Department of Finance was highly critical of some very...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (21 Sep 2017)

Catherine Murphy: It is the Minister who has the responsibility to this committee. Is that correct?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (21 Sep 2017)

Catherine Murphy: The Secretary General. It is the Department that has responsibility to this committee rather than the special liquidator. Is that correct?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (21 Sep 2017)

Catherine Murphy: Yes, but it is not the entity, the IBRC, that is responsible.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (21 Sep 2017)

Catherine Murphy: So it is only the Secretary General who is responsible.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (21 Sep 2017)

Catherine Murphy: Most of us remember the particular night. We got the legislation about 10 p.m. and it went through about 5 a.m.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (21 Sep 2017)

Catherine Murphy: Whether this is an oversight is another issue, but there certainly was not adequate scrutiny of the legislation. Is is that the gap in the legislation should also be communicated to the Department of Finance from the Committee of Public Accounts and that it requires amendment?