Results 1-20 of 31,112 for speaker:Paschal Donohoe

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Pension Provisions (25 Apr 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: Information on the pension entitlements of any individual is of a personal nature and details of an individual’s pension entitlements are not provided. Pension entitlements for Officeholders (including the position of Taoiseach) and TDs are set out in various pieces of legislation. These entitlements depend on a range of factors including which scheme an individual is a member of....

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Protected Disclosures (24 Apr 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: Legislation to protect workers who raise concerns about wrongdoing in the workplace has been in place in Ireland for some time and this year will mark ten years since the Protected Disclosures Act was enacted in 2014. This legislation was further enhanced by the Protected Disclosures Amendment Act 2022 (the 2022 Act) which commenced in full on 1 January 2023. The 2022 Act broadens the...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Departmental Advertising (24 Apr 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: The information requested by the Deputy in respect of my Department for 2022 and 2023 is set out in the table below. Year Total Spend on Advertising Spend on Local Media Advertising (Print) Spend on Local Media Advertising (Broadcast) Agency used to place advertising 2022 €12,306 €3,152 ...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Departmental Contracts (24 Apr 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: I wish to advise the Deputy that my Department has not had any engagement with, or provided any funding to, the organisation in question.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Fire Service (23 Apr 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: If it would not impact on him, I would hope that it would not actually make too much difference to him regardless of when we pass the legislation. In any event the news is good. We nearly have the legislation drafted and we are working away on it. It will definitely be passed this year. We are going to work hard to make sure it is passed by the summer.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Fire Service (23 Apr 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: I am not 100% sure. A moment ago he was not going to be affected by it and now he needs a circular-----

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Fire Service (23 Apr 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: Okay. Right. In any event we will not be able to deal with this via a circular. We need to change the legislation in relation to it, whether it be for the Deputy's constituent or for all of the people who are affected by it. There has been widespread welcome for what we are trying to do here, which is recognising that people can work for longer. They are fitter, healthier and they are...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: National Development Plan (23 Apr 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the Deputy for his question. We have identified a number of constraints in delivery of the national development plan. To facilitate an exchange with the Deputy, I will pick two. First is the availability of the workers we need to translate spending plans into delivery of homes and projects and the labour and skills shortages in our economy. We are looking to address that through...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: National Development Plan (23 Apr 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: I would have to identity inflation as the biggest challenge we have faced, given the cost of raw materials we need to deliver homes has increased in the way it has, with a knock-on effect on many buildings our country expects us to deliver. That, by some way, has been the biggest challenge we will have had in recent years. While I am hopeful it will improve, we should not be naive in...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: National Development Plan (23 Apr 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: We are in a position to drill down into it. Unfortunately, the answer has been both simple and very difficult. The cost of inputs has gone up so much, including wood, steel and other things we needed in recent years to turn our money into projects the country wants. It has got far more expensive to build. In terms of indications that it is beginning to improve, at this point any evidence...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Capital Expenditure Programme (23 Apr 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: The Deputy asked me about 2025 and 2026. For 2025, at €14.35 billion, the spend will be 4.5% of GNI* and for 2026, with an allocation of €15.45 billion, it will be 4.6% of GNI*. Those are the figures. In fairness to the Deputy, she raised this issue at the very start of questions to me but the answers were under Question No. 58. That is what the figures are.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Capital Expenditure Programme (23 Apr 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: Yes, I answered that. We set a target of 5%. We are getting towards that target. We are making progress towards the delivery of it. I will go back to the point I made at the start of my exchange with the Deputy. Looking at the increases in capital expenditure year upon year upon year, between this year and next year there will be an increased spend of €1.2 billion. Capital...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Capital Expenditure Programme (23 Apr 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: I appreciate that. I am not familiar with the detail on the schools the Deputy referenced. I do not want to do them a disservice. However, no matter how much more money is available to the Government or how much it decides to spend, there will always be a higher demand than there is money available to meet that demand. That will always be the case. Anywhere any Minister goes, there is a...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Public Spending Code (23 Apr 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the Deputy very much. The infrastructure guidelines were indeed published in December. They had an effective date of 1 January 2024. As a result, they are already in effect. My Department has refreshed the requirements for capital projects in the new infrastructure guidelines, reducing the number of approval stages prior to implementation from five to three and streamlining the...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Public Spending Code (23 Apr 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: I will look at three factors. The first is whether the projects individual Government Departments decide to go ahead with are still within budget, that is, still in line with the original expectations set for the project. Second, I will consider whether the guidelines have led to an increase in the speed at which decisions are made and projects brought to tender. From my engagement with my...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Public Spending Code (23 Apr 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: My understanding is that, if housing projects are very closely related, there is an opportunity to bring forward a single application to the Department of housing. I will have to check that for the Deputy. I will do that. I believe the Department of housing will be eager to avoid cases in which two or three different housing projects offering different forms of housing come under the one...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Departmental Expenditure (23 Apr 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: One minute the Deputy is talking about overspend and the next he is talking about cyberattacks. The Deputy pretends - I say pretends because I find him entirely unconvincing in his arguments - to be making the case for the stronger State and the State doing more. I thought he was a left-of-centre politician when it came to the role of the State, but he does not appear to give the effect of...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Departmental Expenditure (23 Apr 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: Is the Deputy going to make reference to all the flood relief programmes that work? Is he going to acknowledge any of them? He brought up ventilators a moment ago. He is just the sort of Deputy who would be excoriating the Government if the ventilators were not available in the first place. We were in a crisis situation at that point-----

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Departmental Expenditure (23 Apr 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: We were trying to save lives at that point.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Departmental Expenditure (23 Apr 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: I can understand why he is behaving the way he is, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle-----