Results 461-480 of 1,055,889 for in 'Dáil debates' OR in 'Committee meetings' (speaker:Ciarán Cuffe OR speaker:Brian Stanley OR speaker:Marc Ó Cathasaigh OR speaker:Colm Burke OR speaker:Alan Farrell)
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Uisce Éireann (26 Sep 2024)
Marc Ó Cathasaigh: I thank Mr. Gleeson for his opening statement. He has the dubious pleasure of being audited both publicly and privately - Deloitte and the Comptroller and Auditor General - which I am sure is a real pleasure for the organisation. We must acknowledge that there have been decades of underinvestment. While a lot of question this morning will be on things that need to be done we must, to be...
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Uisce Éireann (26 Sep 2024)
Marc Ó Cathasaigh: My next question is on profits. Again, it is unusual for us, as a committee, to see or deal with profits. Uisce Éireann had a €838 million profit in the year that we are speaking about, on which corporate tax must be paid. What happens with a profit? Is it returned to the shareholders?
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Uisce Éireann (26 Sep 2024)
Marc Ó Cathasaigh: Will that happen in the next year?
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Uisce Éireann (26 Sep 2024)
Marc Ó Cathasaigh: When I see the capital investment or capital contribution for 2024, will that be included?
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Uisce Éireann (26 Sep 2024)
Marc Ó Cathasaigh: Does the capital contribution come from the Department of housing?
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Uisce Éireann (26 Sep 2024)
Marc Ó Cathasaigh: The Department of housing's accounts are going to show the capital contribution less the profit. Am I understanding that correctly?
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Uisce Éireann (26 Sep 2024)
Marc Ó Cathasaigh: It is a peculiar structure. The majority of Uisce Éireann's funding comes in Government subvention income, which it does not have to go to market for. That arrives in, year on year. Similarly, capital contributions are paid by the Government. The non-domestic revenue is pretty flat across the years that I have in front of me from 2019 to 2023. Uisce Éireann is the only...
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Uisce Éireann (26 Sep 2024)
Marc Ó Cathasaigh: There is no other place that somebody can go-----
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Uisce Éireann (26 Sep 2024)
Marc Ó Cathasaigh: I just want to understand that in the context of bonus payments. The figures are very significant, with nearly 10% of payroll costs accounted for by bonus payments. I am coming from a public sector background. I was a teacher before becoming a Deputy and one's bonus payment consisted of someone putting a packet of biscuits on the table. I would like to know how Uisce Éireann...
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Uisce Éireann (26 Sep 2024)
Marc Ó Cathasaigh: For the year in question, I have the overall figure which is €10,569,830. The average payout was €6,480, as detailed on page 67 of the accounts. Were there employees who did not receive a bonus of any kind during that year?
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Uisce Éireann (26 Sep 2024)
Marc Ó Cathasaigh: Can Mr. Gleeson give me a sense of the percentage of employees who did not receive any individualised bonus in 2023?
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Uisce Éireann (26 Sep 2024)
Marc Ó Cathasaigh: I am trying to understand this in the context of my primary schoolteacher background, where people turn up and do their work all day long. If the bonus is almost built in, then how do people differentiate it from pay?
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Uisce Éireann (26 Sep 2024)
Marc Ó Cathasaigh: We have data on the average payment but do our guests have information on what the larger bonus payments were?
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Uisce Éireann (26 Sep 2024)
Marc Ó Cathasaigh: I understand that but the point is that the company does not need to go to the market for its revenue.
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Uisce Éireann (26 Sep 2024)
Marc Ó Cathasaigh: Yes, and I want to get to that as well. I want to dig down into the pay scales. I want our guests to help me to understand the competencies of the staff base that underpin the staffing costs but I would like to get some sense of the larger end of the bonuses paid out.
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Uisce Éireann (26 Sep 2024)
Marc Ó Cathasaigh: Does that cover everything? I know it excludes pension but is there anything within that payment situation that I am missing in terms of perks like company car allowances and so on? I would like a fuller picture of what the pay and conditions look like.
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Uisce Éireann (26 Sep 2024)
Marc Ó Cathasaigh: Does Mr. Gleeson have a sense of how many car allowances there are?
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Uisce Éireann (26 Sep 2024)
Marc Ó Cathasaigh: Mr. Gleeson said that Uisce Éireann has to go out to the market to source its employees. I did a quick tot of the employees earning between €100,000 and €200,000. There are 328 employees within that bracket, earning six-figure salaries, and there are 16 people in the organisation who earn above that. That is a lot of people. I know Uisce Éireann is a big...
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Uisce Éireann (26 Sep 2024)
Marc Ó Cathasaigh: I ask Mr. Gleeson to explain how the benchmarking happens because it is obviously very different from public sector benchmarking.
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2023: Uisce Éireann (26 Sep 2024)
Marc Ó Cathasaigh: I have given a good deal of time to that matter. I thank Mr. McCarthy very much for the answers. I want to get to a bunch of things. I want to ask about liabilities for fines, which we do have. We are liable for fines from Europe, Inland Fisheries Ireland, IFI, and the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA. I had a glance through the synopsis from the audit and risk committee. I am...