Results 21-40 of 1,076,642 for in 'Dáil debates' OR (speaker:Tom Kitt OR speaker:Marc Ó Cathasaigh OR speaker:Aodhán Ó Ríordáin OR speaker:Brian Stanley OR speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett OR speaker:Roderic O'Gorman OR speaker:Seán Fleming) in 'Committee meetings'

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (11 Jul 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: We have been through that to an extent so I want to-----

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (11 Jul 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: I do not intend to labour this point because there are many other matters I want to get to. However, the deputy chief veterinary officer made that statement before the Committee of Public Accounts relatively recently, but Mr. Gleeson stated that five separate complaints had been made by members of the public, I presume before that. Is Mr. Gleeson saying unequivocally that no issues were...

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (11 Jul 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: I want to explore the issue of traceability a little further. There has been huge fallout from this "RTÉ Investigates" programme. Europol joined a European meeting, co-ordinating international elements of an investigation. Dutch authorities issued a serious warning through the European Commission's rapid alert system for food and feed. There have been huge implications across Europe...

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (11 Jul 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: Mr. Gleeson has to give me some sort of insight on that number. An allegation was made in the programme that 20,000 horses go missing each year. As Secretary General of the Department of agriculture, Mr. Gleeson has to be able to advise the committee whether that is in the ball park, whether he utterly refutes it, thinks it is close, nearby or ridiculous.

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (11 Jul 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: That is not good enough. I have to be honest. I want to move on to two other issues that have only arisen in the past week. News reached us last Friday that the chief financial officer at the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board, IHRB, Donal O'Shea, has resigned. He has been on voluntary leave for the past year, as Mr. Gleeson will be aware. He will remember that Darragh O'Loughlin had to...

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (11 Jul 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: Mr. Gleeson found out through the press like the rest of us.

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (11 Jul 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: Would Mr. Gleeson have expected the CEO to have spoken to him? Would he have expected Mr. Darragh O'Loughlin to have picked up the phone to him or to the Minister to say he had received a resignation letter?

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (11 Jul 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: He did.

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (11 Jul 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: I remember.

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (11 Jul 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: When you get a letter of resignation, you have two choices: to accept it or to not accept it. If the Department was not apprised of the letter of resignation, the Minister was never involved in any discussion as to whether the resignation would be accepted when it was tendered.

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (11 Jul 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: The CFO of the IHRB is now unlikely to appear before this committee to account for the actions that were taken around that transfer of moneys from the injured jockeys fund. It is highly unlikely that we will ever get that person before the committee to account for the use of public moneys. That is why I think it should have been part of the discussion. Even if it was decided that we were...

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (11 Jul 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: Has Mr. Gleeson any details on the terms around the resignation? Was it a straight resignation or was there a compensatory-----

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (11 Jul 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: There are many other places I wish to go. I wanted to talk about the external review of the Horse and Greyhound Fund. I may return to that issue. In his opening statement, Mr. Gleeson chose not to address chapter 10 of the Comptroller and Auditor General's accounts of the public services. That was one of the matters listed for discussion. Why did he make the decision not to address...

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (11 Jul 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: Okay.

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (11 Jul 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: I understand, but the matter was listed for discussion. When I read this chapter, my jaw dropped. The Department lost a forest.

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (11 Jul 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: The question is around oversight and how the registry is done. We lost a forest but we gained a Georgian house. We then found out someone was living in the Georgian house. We did not gain a cottage. We decided we had found a Georgian house on Backweston Farm. We did not know the house was there and we found out that the farm foreman resides on the farm but no tenancy agreement is in place.

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (11 Jul 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: We found out that Stacumny Cottage is let to a member staff for €104 per year, which is a fairly good rental cost in this market. This investigation was only carried out on 38% of the lands. Has the Department subsequently reviewed the other 62% of the property?

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (11 Jul 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: Were the details of the tenancies covered within the contracts of employment?

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (11 Jul 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: I will put a question to Ms Ivory. As an official of the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery, and Reform, is she happy to allow a nil valuation to sit on the balance sheet? Is she happy that those nil values are recorded?

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (11 Jul 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: I understand it is a matter for the Department. I am asking for the view of the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery, and Reform on the current situation.