Results 41-60 of 1,035,006 for in 'Dáil debates' OR in 'Committee meetings' (speaker:Máiría Cahill OR speaker:Malcolm Noonan OR speaker:Marc Ó Cathasaigh OR speaker:Cormac Devlin OR speaker:Johnny Mythen)

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)

Cormac Devlin: Was there ever more than one equine slaughterhouse in the country in operation at any given time?

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)

Cormac Devlin: Why did the Kilkenny abattoir cease?

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)

Cormac Devlin: I hear what Mr. Gleeson is saying and I know it is a sensitive issue given the timeframe we are operating to right now, but if there were several slaughterhouses in operation and one slaughterhouse had a previous conviction or a conviction while in operation, does the current contract with the Department allow that same individual set up under a new name or a new entity and engage with a...

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)

Cormac Devlin: A licence or whatever it may be.

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)

Cormac Devlin: Sorry, it is an approval.

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)

Cormac Devlin: I presume inspections would flow from that same question as well in terms of additional oversight, etc.

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)

Cormac Devlin: I can appreciate that. Staying with the animal cruelty element of things, I know the Department was involved with the Department of Rural and Community Development in terms of the control of dangerous dogs. It is something I have raised with the Department of agriculture before. I know the stakeholder engagement group has been established, which is wonderful. Speaking of the licence or...

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)

Cormac Devlin: What kind of timeline are we talking on that, roughly?

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)

Cormac Devlin: In terms of the dogs issue, or cats or any other animals such as donkeys, you name it, that other shelters are looking after, and there are some specific shelters around the country that deal with specific types of animals for understandable reasons and then there are other mixed homes such as cat and dog homes, etc. I appreciate there is a split between Mr. Gleeson's Department and the...

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)

Cormac Devlin: That is some clarity on it. In terms of complaints, would the complaints about any particular pound or operator come directly to the Department?

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)

Cormac Devlin: This is where it gets quite complex and this is part of the problem. What I was referring to earlier with Mr. Gleeson was that when he spoke of a root and branch approach, what I do not want to see is the equine sector being root and branch reviewed and certain criteria applied, if he can see what I am getting at here, and then in another section we are back here in a year's time talking...

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)

Cormac Devlin: I appreciate that.

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)

Cormac Devlin: To be clear, nobody is saying that work is not essential and urgent. It is but I would like to hear from Mr. Gleeson that a similar approach will be taken across animal welfare within the Department to ensure we are not back talking about cats, dogs or other animals with a concern similar to that raised in the equine sector.

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)

Cormac Devlin: Could Mr. Gleeson send the committee a note with the number of complaints received and concerns from the public about animal welfare in a more general sense? It may be specific to different categories of pounds or shelters. This is something we will return to when Mr. Gleeson returns to the committee.

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 ask a few boiler house questions. We unfortunately have a trend of non-compliance with procurement rules. It was €3.5 million in 2022 for 44 contracts. In 2021, it was €3.8 million relating to 64 contracts and in 2020, it was €3.5 million relating to 64 contracts. It is around €3.5 million per year. Are many of these non-compliant contracts what we...

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 were two fairly significant duplicate payments. Have they been fully recovered?

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: Will Mr. Gleeson put my mind at rest? There were five instances of fraud and two duplicate payments. Was there any link between them?

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 am asking an oral question in the Dáil shortly so I am a little under pressure with the clock, both from the Chair and the Dáil. I will pick up on a point Deputy Devlin made about our need to be able to look at animal welfare in the round and not just concentrate on this abattoir issue, which the latest issue. We had RTÉ before the committee last year with its travails...

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 know it is a matter of Government policy and that the Department is constrained. Was it considered-----

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: Was consideration given to putting it into the terms of reference for this external review?