Results 101-120 of 2,744 for speaker:Ossian Smyth

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 11 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (Revised)
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances (Revised)
Vote 14 - State Laboratory (Revised)
Vote 15 - Secret Service (Revised)
Vote 17 - Public Appointments Service (Revised)
Vote 18 - National Shared Services Office (Revised)
Vote 19 - Office of the Ombudsman (Revised)
Vote 39 - Office of Government Procurement (Revised)
Vote 43 - Office of the Chief Government Information Officer (Revised) (2 Mar 2021)

Ossian Smyth: I would love to be able to answer the Deputy's questions but the details of a particular contract between the HSE and a private company to supply equipment is a matter for the HSE and Department of Health. I suggest the Deputy directly address his questions to the HSE and I am sure it will be able to help him. I regret that I do not have details on the contract. In general, the Office of...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 11 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (Revised)
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances (Revised)
Vote 14 - State Laboratory (Revised)
Vote 15 - Secret Service (Revised)
Vote 17 - Public Appointments Service (Revised)
Vote 18 - National Shared Services Office (Revised)
Vote 19 - Office of the Ombudsman (Revised)
Vote 39 - Office of Government Procurement (Revised)
Vote 43 - Office of the Chief Government Information Officer (Revised) (2 Mar 2021)

Ossian Smyth: The Deputy is right. It is of primary concern. Each contracting authority - each Department - is responsible for its own expenditure. It has an Accounting Officer and is audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General. The Accounting Officer appears before committees and is cross-examined by Deputies, including Deputy Tóibín. That is the chain of command. I am very happy to...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 11 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (Revised)
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances (Revised)
Vote 14 - State Laboratory (Revised)
Vote 15 - Secret Service (Revised)
Vote 17 - Public Appointments Service (Revised)
Vote 18 - National Shared Services Office (Revised)
Vote 19 - Office of the Ombudsman (Revised)
Vote 39 - Office of Government Procurement (Revised)
Vote 43 - Office of the Chief Government Information Officer (Revised) (2 Mar 2021)

Ossian Smyth: The Chairman said there had been a policy failure.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 11 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (Revised)
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances (Revised)
Vote 14 - State Laboratory (Revised)
Vote 15 - Secret Service (Revised)
Vote 17 - Public Appointments Service (Revised)
Vote 18 - National Shared Services Office (Revised)
Vote 19 - Office of the Ombudsman (Revised)
Vote 39 - Office of Government Procurement (Revised)
Vote 43 - Office of the Chief Government Information Officer (Revised) (2 Mar 2021)

Ossian Smyth: If I knew that there had been such a failure, I would certainly address it. Maybe the Chairman knows more than I do but what I know is that there are questions about a particular contract that was taken out by a particular contracting authority, which in this case is the HSE. I do not know if that is an operational question, whether there was due diligence or if the framework was followed...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 11 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (Revised)
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances (Revised)
Vote 14 - State Laboratory (Revised)
Vote 15 - Secret Service (Revised)
Vote 17 - Public Appointments Service (Revised)
Vote 18 - National Shared Services Office (Revised)
Vote 19 - Office of the Ombudsman (Revised)
Vote 39 - Office of Government Procurement (Revised)
Vote 43 - Office of the Chief Government Information Officer (Revised) (2 Mar 2021)

Ossian Smyth: It is not the role of the Office of Government Procurement to investigate individual contracting authorities.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 11 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (Revised)
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances (Revised)
Vote 14 - State Laboratory (Revised)
Vote 15 - Secret Service (Revised)
Vote 17 - Public Appointments Service (Revised)
Vote 18 - National Shared Services Office (Revised)
Vote 19 - Office of the Ombudsman (Revised)
Vote 39 - Office of Government Procurement (Revised)
Vote 43 - Office of the Chief Government Information Officer (Revised) (2 Mar 2021)

Ossian Smyth: Yes.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 11 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (Revised)
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances (Revised)
Vote 14 - State Laboratory (Revised)
Vote 15 - Secret Service (Revised)
Vote 17 - Public Appointments Service (Revised)
Vote 18 - National Shared Services Office (Revised)
Vote 19 - Office of the Ombudsman (Revised)
Vote 39 - Office of Government Procurement (Revised)
Vote 43 - Office of the Chief Government Information Officer (Revised) (2 Mar 2021)

Ossian Smyth: It is the job of the Office of Government Procurement to form policies about procurement. It makes the rules about how to buy things and then issues those rules. It works with the contracting authorities to make sure the rules are feasible and workable. It gets expert advice and the contracting authorities are required by Government policy to follow those rules. However, we do not police...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 11 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (Revised)
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances (Revised)
Vote 14 - State Laboratory (Revised)
Vote 15 - Secret Service (Revised)
Vote 17 - Public Appointments Service (Revised)
Vote 18 - National Shared Services Office (Revised)
Vote 19 - Office of the Ombudsman (Revised)
Vote 39 - Office of Government Procurement (Revised)
Vote 43 - Office of the Chief Government Information Officer (Revised) (2 Mar 2021)

Ossian Smyth: The Chairman is absolutely right. There no point in making a policy in a vacuum that has no relationship with what happens in the real world. There are learnings to be gained. We were in an emergency last year and time will be spent examining what actually happened during the emergency procurements to see whether the policy worked, whether it was followed or if anything went wrong. I...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 11 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (Revised)
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances (Revised)
Vote 14 - State Laboratory (Revised)
Vote 15 - Secret Service (Revised)
Vote 17 - Public Appointments Service (Revised)
Vote 18 - National Shared Services Office (Revised)
Vote 19 - Office of the Ombudsman (Revised)
Vote 39 - Office of Government Procurement (Revised)
Vote 43 - Office of the Chief Government Information Officer (Revised) (2 Mar 2021)

Ossian Smyth: The OGP's procurement reform board engages with the HSE. The HSE has its own procurement organisation, health business services, HBS. All of the Government is going to be examining its response to the Covid-19 crisis last year to see what is to be learned from it. I am sure there will be-----

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 11 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (Revised)
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances (Revised)
Vote 14 - State Laboratory (Revised)
Vote 15 - Secret Service (Revised)
Vote 17 - Public Appointments Service (Revised)
Vote 18 - National Shared Services Office (Revised)
Vote 19 - Office of the Ombudsman (Revised)
Vote 39 - Office of Government Procurement (Revised)
Vote 43 - Office of the Chief Government Information Officer (Revised) (2 Mar 2021)

Ossian Smyth: Can I come in on the subject of SMEs?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 11 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (Revised)
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances (Revised)
Vote 14 - State Laboratory (Revised)
Vote 15 - Secret Service (Revised)
Vote 17 - Public Appointments Service (Revised)
Vote 18 - National Shared Services Office (Revised)
Vote 19 - Office of the Ombudsman (Revised)
Vote 39 - Office of Government Procurement (Revised)
Vote 43 - Office of the Chief Government Information Officer (Revised) (2 Mar 2021)

Ossian Smyth: I meet regularly with SMEs and their representative bodies to ask them what they would like changed in the procurement process in order that they can win more procurement contracts as small Irish companies. I do that quarterly and I am due to meet them again in a couple of weeks. It is a fact that the majority of public procurement spend goes to SMEs at the moment. That is the situation....

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 11 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (Revised)
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances (Revised)
Vote 14 - State Laboratory (Revised)
Vote 15 - Secret Service (Revised)
Vote 17 - Public Appointments Service (Revised)
Vote 18 - National Shared Services Office (Revised)
Vote 19 - Office of the Ombudsman (Revised)
Vote 39 - Office of Government Procurement (Revised)
Vote 43 - Office of the Chief Government Information Officer (Revised) (2 Mar 2021)

Ossian Smyth: Regarding the capital works management framework, I am not sure if there was a specific question on it. The capital works management framework is our general framework for all major capital works. Specifically, we have 40 projects coming up, the value of which will be more than €100 million, which will have to be managed carefully. As part of that, we follow the recommendations in...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 11 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (Revised)
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances (Revised)
Vote 14 - State Laboratory (Revised)
Vote 15 - Secret Service (Revised)
Vote 17 - Public Appointments Service (Revised)
Vote 18 - National Shared Services Office (Revised)
Vote 19 - Office of the Ombudsman (Revised)
Vote 39 - Office of Government Procurement (Revised)
Vote 43 - Office of the Chief Government Information Officer (Revised) (2 Mar 2021)

Ossian Smyth: I am not sure what the Deputy is looking for? Is it a report on non-compliant procurement across all of government?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 11 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (Revised)
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances (Revised)
Vote 14 - State Laboratory (Revised)
Vote 15 - Secret Service (Revised)
Vote 17 - Public Appointments Service (Revised)
Vote 18 - National Shared Services Office (Revised)
Vote 19 - Office of the Ombudsman (Revised)
Vote 39 - Office of Government Procurement (Revised)
Vote 43 - Office of the Chief Government Information Officer (Revised) (2 Mar 2021)

Ossian Smyth: I will communicate with the OGP on that matter and revert to the Deputy.

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Eating Disorders (5 Mar 2021)

Ossian Smyth: I am here this morning on behalf of the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Butler, to answer Senator O'Loughlin's questions. I welcome the opportunity to speak about Ireland's model of care for eating disorders, particularly during eating disorders awareness week. Eating disorders have the highest mortality and morbidity, as the Senator said, of all mental health...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Eating Disorders (5 Mar 2021)

Ossian Smyth: I thank the Senator for raising this important issue. Everyone wants the best outcomes for people who are affected by eating disorders. It is clear that progress in establishing the clinical programme has not been as rapid as we wished, but this does not mean that nothing has happened or that there is no work in progress. Considerable work has been undertaken and the programme continues to...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (5 Mar 2021)

Ossian Smyth: I take the Senator's points about rateable businesses. I will describe the supports targeted specifically at the live entertainment sector and the arts. It is true that not every business will have a premises these days. Covid-19 restrictions continue to have a devastating effect on the live entertainment sector. Restrictions on mass gatherings are necessary to prevent the spread of the...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (5 Mar 2021)

Ossian Smyth: I thank the Senator. I take her points on board and will convey them to the Minister, Deputy Martin, whom I meet regularly. This year, we are doing something which is ten times larger than what we did last year. I cannot pre-announce what the Minister will announce but I know this issue is very dear to her heart and she is very keen to deliver on her commitments. I draw the attention of...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Site Acquisitions (24 Mar 2021)

Ossian Smyth: 933. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the progress being made to accommodate a new school (details supplied) for the 2021-2022 school year; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [15595/21]

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Site Acquisitions (24 Mar 2021)

Ossian Smyth: 934. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the progress being made to accommodate a new school (details supplied) for the 2021-2022 school year; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [15596/21]