Results 1-18 of 18 for and segment:8912522

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (2 May 2024)

Brian Stanley: The business before us this afternoon is minutes, accounts and financial statements, correspondence, work programme and any other business. The first item of business is minutes. The minutes from the meeting of 25 April 2024 have been circulated to members. Do any members wish to raise anything in respect of the minutes? No. Are the minutes agreed? Agreed. As usual, they will be...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (2 May 2024)

Mr. Seamus McCarthy: First, we have the Environment Fund. This is for the period 1 January 2022 to 30 June 2023, so it is an 18-month account. It is the final account of the Environment Fund and it received a clear audit opinion. The second is the account of the receipt of revenue of the State collected by the Revenue Commissioners for 2023, and it received a clear audit opinion. These...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (2 May 2024)

Brian Stanley: Waterways Ireland again receives a clear audit opinion. Sorry, that was last week. Are there any other questions on the accounts and financial statements? No. Can we agree to note the listing of the accounts and financial statements? Agreed. As usual, accounts and financial statements will be published as part of the minutes. We will move on to correspondence. As previously agreed,...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (2 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: I essentially want to focus on Nos. 2 and 3, which relate to persons under the age of 18. I tabled some parliamentary questions on this but I think it would be useful for the public accounts committee to write to both the Department of Justice and Tusla on the number of referrals to Tusla of persons under the age of 18. There is a narrative that putting information into the public arena is...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (2 May 2024)

Brian Stanley: I note that the International Protection Office and Tusla are working on the design of a new model to improve the process of managing age assessments. There was a question mark over the fact that some who were claiming to be minors were not minors, but a new process is being put in place for that, and that is to be welcomed. That is supposed to be in place in the coming weeks. It is more...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (2 May 2024)

Brian Stanley: It was very clear when it was in here on the numbers of unaccompanied minors arriving and pointed it out that day. It is also important to have procedures in place to deal with this. We are two years and three months into a war. Even at this late stage, it needs to deal with this. Moving on, No. 2545 from Jonathan Hill, who is now the former chief of executive of the Football...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (2 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: It might be worth going back to them and looking for more granular information. It prompted something to me. Sport Ireland and, indeed, the FAI will have some involvement in the running of various elements, including underage. When we spend money on sports capital grants, it is essential we get what is grant aided. That is an area on which we might have to invite the Department. I am...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (2 May 2024)

Brian Stanley: We can put it to the committee and if it is agreeable, we will bring them in. Thank you. No. 2559B from Ms Oonagh Buckley, Secretary General, Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, dated 24 April 2024, providing correspondence to the committee in relation to protected disclosures at Inland Fisheries Ireland, IFI. It is proposed we note and do not publish this item due...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (2 May 2024)

Brian Stanley: ...officer, Road Safety Authority, dated 30 April 2024, providing a response to the committee regarding an invitation to attend a meeting of the Committee of Public Accounts. It is proposed we note and publish this item. Is that agreed?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (2 May 2024)

Brian Stanley: Deputy Marc Ó Cathasaigh has flagged this item. The letter is basically saying they will not come. I think we need to remind the RSA that it is audited by the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General. It is accountable to this committee. The last time it was here was 2018. That is pre-Covid. That is six years ago. It needs to be brought in here and it will come in here. I...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (2 May 2024)

Brian Stanley: I suggest we have a vacant slot between now and the summer. We will pin it down on the work programme later but we should try to have them in on that vacant slot. It has been notified in good time that the public accounts committee is requesting its attendance as witnesses. With that in mind, we will ask the RSA to appear at our next available slot. Is that agreed?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (2 May 2024)

Brian Stanley: ...of the 2022 financial statements of the Private Security Authority, contrary to the requirements under circular 24 of 2021. The financial statements were certified on 12 June 2023 by the Comptroller and Auditor General but were not laid by the Department until 15 November 2023, five months later. The Department states the 2022 audited accounts of the Private Security Authority were...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (2 May 2024)

Brian Stanley: ...with the University of Limerick on the 2022 financial statements. We will be joined by the deputy president, who has been delegated the accountability function in the absence of the president and the chancellor. Representatives of the Higher Education Authority and the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science will also attend. Governance and...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (2 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: Can I go back, please, and ask a question on what we will be able to get to on this issue of the University of Limerick which is causing us all concern? Is an investigation under way into that?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (2 May 2024)

Mr. Seamus McCarthy: No, but the committee will not actually have the detail of the thing other than what the university can tell it. As I understand it, much of the due diligence for the purchase on Rhebogue was carried out during the period of account that the committee will be examining. The closing date for the actual purchase and deal was October 2023, which even brings it outside of...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (2 May 2024)

Mr. Seamus McCarthy: It is holding it up and there is the matter of impairment which has to be determined. Public statements have been made on it by the president where she announced that she anticipated that there would be an impairment. That is a matter which is being examined as part of the audit of the 2022-2023 financial statements.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (2 May 2024)

Brian Stanley: I thank Mr. McCarthy for that. We will thrash that out next week, hopefully, with the Comptroller and Auditor General in attendance when we will have the Accounting Officer present. On 16 May 2024 we will meet with the Department of Education on Vote 26. The following areas of interest have been flagged: running costs and demand management for schools; school building programmes; school...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (2 May 2024)

The committee went into private session at 1.56 p.m. and adjourned at 2.07 p.m. until 9.30 a.m. on Thursday, 9 May 2024.