Results 461-480 of 2,211 for speaker:Paul Connaughton

Public Accounts Committee: 2013 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 8 - Operation of the Emergency Call Answering Service (7 May 2015)

Paul Connaughton: How did those issues start? I am referring to simple minute taking at meetings. How did no one at the start of the process say that it was not correct?

Public Accounts Committee: 2013 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 8 - Operation of the Emergency Call Answering Service (7 May 2015)

Paul Connaughton: This was all based on the Comptroller and Auditor General's report.

Public Accounts Committee: 2013 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 8 - Operation of the Emergency Call Answering Service (7 May 2015)

Paul Connaughton: The Department was caught out.

Public Accounts Committee: 2013 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 8 - Operation of the Emergency Call Answering Service (7 May 2015)

Paul Connaughton: Before the report, did anyone in the Department raise a hand and say that matters should be handled differently or were there changes to these processes or governance structures?

Public Accounts Committee: 2013 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 8 - Operation of the Emergency Call Answering Service (7 May 2015)

Paul Connaughton: I imagine that one of the basic KPIs is how quickly calls are answered.

Public Accounts Committee: 2013 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 8 - Operation of the Emergency Call Answering Service (7 May 2015)

Paul Connaughton: Calls are then moved on to the emergency services.

Public Accounts Committee: 2013 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 8 - Operation of the Emergency Call Answering Service (7 May 2015)

Paul Connaughton: One of the main issues for emergency services of which I have been told is the location, particularly in rural areas. Does the Department have any involvement in this regard or is it down to the emergency services?

Public Accounts Committee: 2013 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 8 - Operation of the Emergency Call Answering Service (7 May 2015)

Paul Connaughton: The subsequent location element, with an ambulance going out to rural Sligo or Galway, is not an issue for the Department.

Public Accounts Committee: 2013 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 8 - Operation of the Emergency Call Answering Service (7 May 2015)

Paul Connaughton: It is down to the ambulance service or whatever at that stage.

Public Accounts Committee: 2013 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 8 - Operation of the Emergency Call Answering Service (7 May 2015)

Paul Connaughton: Would that fall under the Department of Health's remit?

Public Accounts Committee: 2013 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 8 - Operation of the Emergency Call Answering Service (7 May 2015)

Paul Connaughton: The HSE.

Public Accounts Committee: 2013 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 8 - Operation of the Emergency Call Answering Service (7 May 2015)

Paul Connaughton: Okay. I want to discuss just one final area, which is post offices. Is it Mr. Griffin's Department that set up this committee with Bobby Kerr, the Post Office Network Business Development Group?

Public Accounts Committee: 2013 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 8 - Operation of the Emergency Call Answering Service (7 May 2015)

Paul Connaughton: Can Mr. Griffin indicate where that group is at now and when it might report?

Public Accounts Committee: 2013 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 8 - Operation of the Emergency Call Answering Service (7 May 2015)

Paul Connaughton: Can the witness give the committee a flavour of what the terms of reference were for that group?

Public Accounts Committee: 2013 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 8 - Operation of the Emergency Call Answering Service (7 May 2015)

Paul Connaughton: Does that involve engaging with post offices?

Public Accounts Committee: 2013 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 8 - Operation of the Emergency Call Answering Service (7 May 2015)

Paul Connaughton: Where does the witness see the future of the country's post office network?

Public Accounts Committee: 2013 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 8 - Operation of the Emergency Call Answering Service (7 May 2015)

Paul Connaughton: How many over the past four years?

Public Accounts Committee: 2013 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 8 - Operation of the Emergency Call Answering Service (7 May 2015)

Paul Connaughton: My personal belief is that the engagement process is a sham. They give this impression of a public consultation which does not exist. They say to local communities to submit information as to why their local post office is so important, but at the end of the day it is very hard to know how they make a decision between two different post offices. I give Galway as an example where they still...

Public Accounts Committee: 2013 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 8 - Operation of the Emergency Call Answering Service (7 May 2015)

Paul Connaughton: That is my experience of it. We have mentioned a whole range of areas here where Mr. Griffin used the term KPI - key performance indicators. I do not understand why An Post cannot be more strategic for the future of the post office network - people are going to use them or they are not. Is it up to the public to put back these individual post offices? Over the past four years I have heard...

Public Accounts Committee: 2013 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 8 - Operation of the Emergency Call Answering Service (7 May 2015)

Paul Connaughton: Is that where the help of the Department will come?