Results 1-20 of 20 for sfpa segment:7908549

Public Accounts Committee: 2019 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (20 Apr 2021)

Dr. Cecil Beamish: The Department was aware of the activity of the SFPA. A variety of things were going on to improve the situation that the SFPA was engaged in, including-----

Public Accounts Committee: 2019 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (20 Apr 2021)

...statement of internal financial control and the Appropriation Accounts for 2019. The second thing is that we have taken a number of steps in recent years to increase the resources available to the SFPA and the Deputy mentioned that. The SFPA has engaged the PwC to carry out a capability review and is trying to implement the relevant recommendations at the moment. A number of steps have...

Public Accounts Committee: 2019 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (20 Apr 2021)

Verona Murphy: ...", there was a statement made this morning to the newspaper that a spokesperson for the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine said the Commission decision was an operational matter for the SFPA and that the Minister is precluded from getting involved in these matters. The SFPA has, in effect, cost us €40 million and it is nothing to do with the Minister. That is for Mr....

Public Accounts Committee: 2019 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (20 Apr 2021)

...is a very clear legal duty on the operators, in the first instance. After that, we are talking about detection of non-compliance. In that sense, a lot of effort has been made to strengthen the SFPA and to build its capability. A capability review was commissioned by the SFPA with an oversight committee, subsequent to the period the Deputy is talking about. There is an implementation...

Public Accounts Committee: 2019 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (20 Apr 2021)

Verona Murphy: ...the Committee of the Public Accounts and we are here to make sure that there is value for money for the public coffers. When Mr. Gleeson says the Department has invested significant money in the SFPA, I appreciate that is what he thinks. However, from the public purse perspective, what we expect is a result. It seems that the only result we have got here is that we have exposed...

Public Accounts Committee: 2019 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (20 Apr 2021)

Colm Burke: I thank the witnesses for their replies to the earlier questions. I have two quick questions on different issues. On the SFPA, the PwC report concluded that the SFPA was not working effectively and required urgent attention. That was one report. There was a report from Deloitte in 2020 as well. What action will the Department take in dealing with all the concerns that have been raised?...

Public Accounts Committee: 2019 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (20 Apr 2021)

...I suppose, this is a very contested area. There is an acceptance that this is not where we want to be. We have worked hard over the past couple of years to increase the resources available to the SFPA and it has engaged-----

Public Accounts Committee: 2019 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (20 Apr 2021)

Dr. Cecil Beamish: One second, if I could just finish. We do not do it. The SFPA is a legally independent enforcement body. It is reportable to the committee as well in terms of its actions. That is information that it has.

Public Accounts Committee: 2019 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (20 Apr 2021)

Mr. Brendan Gleeson: The SFPA has not cost us €40 million. I am not sure where that is coming from.

Public Accounts Committee: 2019 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (20 Apr 2021)

Colm Burke: My question is quite specific. Was the Department aware of the delays by the Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority, SFPA, which was there to provide supervision? Was it aware the authority was defaulting in doing its job?

Public Accounts Committee: 2019 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (20 Apr 2021)

Dr. Cecil Beamish: The issue is that, in terms of prosecutions, the SFPA has the function of detecting non-compliance and presenting the case to the DPP. The DPP decides whether or not to prosecute. Now-----

Public Accounts Committee: 2019 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (20 Apr 2021)

Verona Murphy: They are not questions. I am really just asking for a "Yes" or "No". Does Mr. Gleeson believe the SFPA is functional?

Public Accounts Committee: 2019 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (20 Apr 2021)

Mr. Brendan Gleeson: The SFPA's obligation is to exercise control over that and do its checks. The Commission has identified significant issues with that and the Department has put significant resources into the SFPA and built its capability over the last three years. Maybe Dr. Beamish has-----

Public Accounts Committee: 2019 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (20 Apr 2021)

Verona Murphy: ...which undermines the ability to ensure an effective control system." That was then, but it must be remembered, no matter who it is, that obligation is on Ireland. Today, we have the chair of the SFPA, Susan Steele, quoted in a newspaper as saying that the "accurate weighing of catches remains the responsibility of [the] industry." Can someone just tell us who is in charge? Mr Gleeson...

Public Accounts Committee: 2019 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (20 Apr 2021)

Mr. Brendan Gleeson: What we have now is a Commission decision. What will be required will be to establish an alternative to the existing control plan. The SFPA, because this is its business and because it has absolute operational independence from the Department, will have to put forward some kind of an alternative. We will have to make sure that that is as reasonable and as workable as...

Public Accounts Committee: 2019 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (20 Apr 2021)

...Ireland. It is a difficult area to regulate. Yes, we are aware of the 2012 issues raised but there are legal operational issues and, by statute, those issues are legally the responsibility of the SFPA.

Public Accounts Committee: 2019 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (20 Apr 2021)

Colm Burke: ...surely alarm bells must have been raised within the Department that if this continued, there would be repercussions. Why was action not taken by the Department? It was the funding agency for the SFPA.

Public Accounts Committee: 2019 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (20 Apr 2021)

Verona Murphy: ...days. The other question I want to touch on is one Deputy Carthy raised about today's report from the Commission. There are two points about this. The Sea Fisheries Protection Authority, SFPA, spent €1.47 million on legal fees in 2019. It spent €731,000 in 2018 on internal audits. In Oireachtas grants, it got €13 million from the Department in 2019 and...

Public Accounts Committee: 2019 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (20 Apr 2021)

Matt Carthy: ...aware whether the Commission intends to impose financial penalties on Ireland? More importantly, what actions does the Department intend to take to challenge the Commission's ruling? The SFPA has expanded greatly in size in recent years so either fraud is being committed and not being detected, which would be widely disputed, or the processes are not in place to give the European...

Public Accounts Committee: 2019 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (20 Apr 2021)

...Department provides substantial funding for several public bodies operating under its aegis. These include Teagasc, An Bord Bia, the Marine Institute, Bord Iascaigh Mhara, BIM, the Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority, SFPA, Horse Racing Ireland, HRI, and Rásaíocht Con Éireann, RCE. By year end, net expenditure under the Vote was €98.4 million less than had been...