Results 21-40 of 3,850 for in 'Dáil debates' speaker:Mick Wallace

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions (Resumed): Coastal Protection (12 Jun 2019)

Mick Wallace: The Leas-Cheann Comhairle is always kind. The peat bogs that Bord na Móna devastated are not being restored. Trees that were planted have all been ripped out of the ground and cut up. About half of them have been burnt and the carbon released back into the atmosphere. It is vital, therefore, that we do something else to sequester carbon quickly and in a permanent way. About 170 km...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions (Resumed): Coastal Protection (12 Jun 2019)

Mick Wallace: I thank the Minister. We have to accept that salt marshes are very impressive at sequestering and storing carbon. Some studies have estimated that, per hectare, a salt marsh can sequester carbon at 40 times the speed of a tropical rainforest. 12 o’clock Vegetated coastal ecosystems such as our salt marshes currently store huge quantities of carbon and need to be protected and...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Land Development Agency (11 Jun 2019)

Mick Wallace: It would be more transparent for the LDA to be established through primary legislation before it begins its work. The idea of a Minister setting up bodies with such vast power via statutory instrument is not necessarily the sign of a healthy democracy. A former employee of the National Asset Management Agency, NAMA, is to be appointed as chief executive officer. Will the Minister explain...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Land Development Agency (11 Jun 2019)

Mick Wallace: Mr. John Moran has said that delivering sustainable and affordable homes for people near their workplaces and social networks is a core part of the agency's work. This will not be achieved if the Government does not address the elephant in the room, which relates to land and the problems around that. The Government is not taking landbanking legislation seriously and it just wants the issue...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Land Development Agency (11 Jun 2019)

Mick Wallace: It is useless. The Minister knows it is useless.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Land Development Agency (11 Jun 2019)

Mick Wallace: If this land issue is not dealt with correctly, it will be more of a problem than a solution.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Land Development Agency (11 Jun 2019)

Mick Wallace: 44. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the status of the Land Development Agency; and when legislation is expected in this regard. [24027/19]

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Land Development Agency (11 Jun 2019)

Mick Wallace: I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle. This question relates to the Land Development Agency. Specifically, I ask for an update on the status of the agency and when the legislation is expected. The agency was heralded as groundbreaking and its mandate is to use State land to contribute towards the stability and sustainability of Ireland's housing market. However, I would argue it has no...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Land Development Agency (11 Jun 2019)

Mick Wallace: I thank the Minister.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 May 2019)

Mick Wallace: The direct provision system has been an outrage of State-sanctioned human rights abuses against men, women and children. It ensures that vulnerable people who are trapped in the system suffer again and again. It is a system of State coercion, disenfranchisement and enforced poverty, run by private companies for huge profit which could not care less about the people they are supposed to be...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 May 2019)

Mick Wallace: This morning, Mr. Justice McMahon said many of his recommendations were still to be implemented, despite the Government boast last year that 98% of them had been implemented. That is not true. The Taoiseach said people were not compelled to be there but I know plenty of these people and they would not be in there if they had an alternative. Because of the housing shortages, however, there...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Public Procurement Regulations (18 Apr 2019)

Mick Wallace: Is the Minister satisfied the consultants have enough experience in hospitals-----

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Public Procurement Regulations (18 Apr 2019)

Mick Wallace: 5. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the way in which he plans to strengthen, by legislation or statutory instrument, the procurement oversight role of his Department in view of the lacuna in his powers of oversight identified recently by the IMF and in view of the projected costs overrun for the national children's hospital; and if he will make a statement on the matter....

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Public Procurement Regulations (18 Apr 2019)

Mick Wallace: The Government said it is clear there are lessons to be learned from the overrun on the children's hospital and other projects, but are we going to find out what went wrong? Who made the decision to get accountants to check what went wrong with a construction project and its procurement process instead of a construction and procurement firm and quantity surveyor team from, for example,...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Public Procurement Regulations (18 Apr 2019)

Mick Wallace: If we do not get the answers, we will not learn the lessons. We are not getting the answers and do not seem to understand what happened. The PwC report reads: "The understanding of the risk profile associated with the procurement and contracting strategy was poor at all levels of the governance structure." Understanding the risk profile of a capital project is the first step. Who did not...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Public Procurement Regulations (18 Apr 2019)

Mick Wallace: The Minister is saying that the board carried all of the responsibility. Do we know whether it was well advised? Was the executive put in place to control the information going to the board on behalf of the HSE? Did the HSE have too much influence over the project? The procurement strategy used was sure to lead to an unmanageable increase in price. As a result, we will not know where the...

National Children's Hospital Costs: Statements (17 Apr 2019)

Mick Wallace: Is it possible to see the contract? Can I see the contract?

National Children's Hospital Costs: Statements (17 Apr 2019)

Mick Wallace: Did the advisers, McCann FitzGerald, advise the executive or the board? That is my first question. The report states: "The understanding of the risk profile associated with the procurement and contracting strategy was poor at all levels of the governance structure". Was the risk profile for the particular project misunderstood and, if so, by whom? I asked previously how it was, in the...

National Children's Hospital Costs: Statements (17 Apr 2019)

Mick Wallace: This is nothing personal. Believe it or not, I do not believe the Minister is the one making these mad decisions so I do not hold him to account. I believe, however, that the Government is behaving recklessly in how it is handling this matter. The refusal to re-tender and address the nature of the contract was a serious mistake, and it will cost us close to €500 million. I can only...

Post-European Council Meetings: Statements (17 Apr 2019)

Mick Wallace: Julian Assange languishes in Belmarsh high-security prison near London for the minor crime of jumping bail. He is under threat of extradition to the USA where he is very unlikely to receive a fair trial. I wonder if the Government will consider offering him asylum rather than see him end up rotting in prison in America. When is the next meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council? Will the...