Results 41-60 of 10,836 for speaker:Catherine Murphy in 'Committee meetings'

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: University of Limerick (9 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: Professor Laffan certainly does not want to do reputational damage. Therefore, I would expect that she would make sure there is nothing that would contribute to reputational damage. Making herself aware of that and asking that question, at the very least, would have been prudent. Let us put it that way.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: University of Limerick (9 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: It should not have happened. Professor Laffan should have been informed about it. I would have expected her to say that she should have been informed about it because it was something that had the potential to do serious reputational damage. On the carrying value of €5.225 million, if UL was to sell those properties now, what is the valuation on them?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: University of Limerick (9 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: What is the fallback position? Presumably, UL is considering all aspects with regard to An Bord Pleanála. We do not know what the decision is going to be by An Bord Pleanála but presumably UL has some sort of fallback position. I presume it is do with the fact that they are built as houses and there is obviously a commercial use and that is really the substance of the issue....

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: University of Limerick (9 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: I will go back to the governing body. Are the same personnel involved? What are the changes on the governing authority? Have there been changes? Are there shortcomings in the governing authority with regard to asking questions or having the financial competence to ask questions?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: University of Limerick (9 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: In terms of transactions and economic competence, what is the position of the board?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: University of Limerick (9 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: We have kind of concluded with RTÉ on a range of issues that were about governance failures and one of the conclusions was that the board did not ask hard questions. Their assessment of themselves was too favourable and the recommendation there was that there would be a three-yearly review of their performance. Is there a review of the performance of the governing authority?...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: University of Limerick (9 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: Can Professor Laffan send us a note, because I have a few other questions? Can Professor Laffan send us a note on exactly what the procedures now in place are-----

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: University of Limerick (9 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: -----in relation to property acquisition and can she send us a note on where those failures were and the difference that has been made since? If Professor Laffan could that in writing, I would appreciate it. In terms of the personnel involved, were the same people involved with the Dunnes Stores transaction and the Rhebogue transaction? Was there anybody who is a common denominator in...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: University of Limerick (9 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: Right, okay. If people were to go and buy those houses in Rhebogue when they were being sold, I can imagine they would have assumed that they would not be able to compete with the university given the amount. Did people not know what property was going for in the area? This was not 5,000 houses. This was a relatively small number of houses with a very bad transaction. Even looking up the...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: University of Limerick (9 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: Why were they not listened to?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: University of Limerick (9 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: Surely the governing authority that was in place at the time were unaware of roughly how much housing are going in the area for.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: University of Limerick (9 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: Does Professor Kilcommins feel that in that context, you were all duped?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: University of Limerick (9 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: Was Professor Klcommins duped? You have must have felt duped. You must feel really angry about this.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: University of Limerick (9 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: Do you all feel you were duped on this? If one wanted to manipulate an organisation, one would give it misinformation and give it very little time to make decisions. This is the same kind of profile as what happened with Dunnes Stores. I would have thought that lesson would have made people ask what kind of student accommodation we are talking about here. I would have thought those kinds...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: University of Limerick (9 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: Is it not about the presentation? It is up to the governing authority to interrogate that presentation in detail. Were there people there who were capable of saying, “I want more information on this. I am not happy to sign off on something unless I see the A to Z of what we are putting our names to here”?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: University of Limerick (9 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: I ask that we get copies of the minutes where this matter arose, whether it was at the governing authority or the audit and risk committee. I would like to see that.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (9 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: Yes. Some way down the page it says that the main contractor has now set out its programme for completion of the construction and fit-out of the hospital by Q4 of 2024, followed by an operation and commissioning period of at least six months for Children's Health Ireland, CHI. I am not keen to just accept that. I would like to see it. We should request that we see the programme for...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (9 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: In the meantime it might be worth writing to them to request updates on progress on the number of properties reached. If there was going to be duplication, there was something in the contract that allowed for them to be paid. I cannot remember what the terminology of it was but if Eircom, for example, were to do an area in the intervention area, it could be compensated for that. It would...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (9 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: Obviously, there is €2.1 million in terms of delays. What timeframe does that cover? Do people remember that penalties were not applied as they got some leeway? I think that was during Covid. We need to ask them, starting from the commencement of the plan, what was promised, what was delivered and were targets set?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (9 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: Yes. We have to see it for ourselves. Were penalties applied or should penalties have been applied?