Results 22,801-22,820 of 26,157 for speaker:Kieran O'Donnell

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 32 - Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport
Chapter 6 - Financial Commitments Under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 26 - Collection of Motor Taxation
Financial Statements 2011 - National Roads Authority (7 Feb 2013)

Kieran O'Donnell: I can understand the 120, 30 and 33. Was there a decline in passenger numbers? In my view one could see a major dip in the Celtic tiger economy in July 2007. When in 2008 were the carriages purchased?

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 32 - Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport
Chapter 6 - Financial Commitments Under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 26 - Collection of Motor Taxation
Financial Statements 2011 - National Roads Authority (7 Feb 2013)

Kieran O'Donnell: They were purchased after the bank guarantee. We were in a situation where Ireland did not have those resources. What was the methodology used by the Department and Irish Rail to sign off on 51 carriages, which is 19 more than were ordered in the previous year? Were passenger numbers increasing? What was the logic? Why did they not pull back and re-order? Mr. O'Mahony speaks about their...

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 32 - Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport
Chapter 6 - Financial Commitments Under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 26 - Collection of Motor Taxation
Financial Statements 2011 - National Roads Authority (7 Feb 2013)

Kieran O'Donnell: With due respect, that is stating the obvious.

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 32 - Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport
Chapter 6 - Financial Commitments Under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 26 - Collection of Motor Taxation
Financial Statements 2011 - National Roads Authority (7 Feb 2013)

Kieran O'Donnell: What I am interested in is the methodology. The job of the Committee of Public Accounts is to find out if the procedures within Departments are robust. Explain the process by which these 51 carriages were agreed.

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 32 - Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport
Chapter 6 - Financial Commitments Under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 26 - Collection of Motor Taxation
Financial Statements 2011 - National Roads Authority (7 Feb 2013)

Kieran O'Donnell: We had representatives of the National Transport Authority before us recently to discuss the procurement of carriages for Irish Rail. Some €36 million was paid to Irish Rail at the end of 2012, yet 21 carriages, with a value of approximately €44 million, were not in use. What due diligence process would have been carried out by the Department in that respect? In December 2010...

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 32 - Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport
Chapter 6 - Financial Commitments Under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 26 - Collection of Motor Taxation
Financial Statements 2011 - National Roads Authority (7 Feb 2013)

Kieran O'Donnell: The figure came to €500 million.

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 32 - Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport
Chapter 6 - Financial Commitments Under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 26 - Collection of Motor Taxation
Financial Statements 2011 - National Roads Authority (7 Feb 2013)

Kieran O'Donnell: What due diligence process was carried out, given that level of investment in carriages? There were 21 carriages idle at the end of 2012, yet the Department saw fit to extend €36 million to Irish Rail at the time.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (7 Feb 2013)

Kieran O'Donnell: I would assume that at this stage the bulk of the data would be on computer systems within Departments and therefore they might bring computers and so forth with them. If the information is not available, I do not see any reason they should not be able to access the bulk of it on the day. If we put them on alert that we expect them to have complete and comprehensive access to information on...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (7 Feb 2013)

Kieran O'Donnell: At this stage it has been going on for well over-----

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (7 Feb 2013)

Kieran O'Donnell: Why has it been ongoing? What about the Statute of Limitations and so forth?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (7 Feb 2013)

Kieran O'Donnell: Is there a legal case at the moment? Is it sub judice?

Promissory Notes: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (6 Feb 2013)

Kieran O'Donnell: I support the Government amendment. Much of the debate on the promissory note has been headline grabbing and I want to give my thoughts on the issue. How will this affect real people's lives? The consequences of default do not bear considering because it is too risky. Everything is about risk so what is the risk to the ordinary person of default? The risks are enormous. In any person's...

Promissory Notes: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (6 Feb 2013)

Kieran O'Donnell: It was done as an election gimmick. I believe Deputy Mattie McGrath was with Fianna Fáil when it was put through. Subsequently he was not. This is about bringing us out of the bailout programme in a twofold manner, by reducing the interest rate and the amount of interest we pay from the current budget each year, which will have a benefit in real people's lives, and rescheduling the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2012: Discussion (6 Feb 2013)

Kieran O'Donnell: The Chairman should not give people ideas.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2012: Discussion (6 Feb 2013)

Kieran O'Donnell: With one of Ms O'Reilly's officers?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2012: Discussion (6 Feb 2013)

Kieran O'Donnell: There has not been any occasion on which the Ms O'Reilly has enforced that right.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2012: Discussion (6 Feb 2013)

Kieran O'Donnell: In terms of what is being proposed, what impact would it have on Ms O'Reilly's operations? Her office does great work. I am going slightly off the theme of our consideration but one issue is the slowness of the process at times. We speak to officers who work in Ms O'Reilly's office who are excellent but there is a backlog of cases.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2012: Discussion (6 Feb 2013)

Kieran O'Donnell: I am asking about requests received by the public bodies. It is an obvious question. The freedom of information process is about submitting a request for information. It is a public-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2012: Discussion (6 Feb 2013)

Kieran O'Donnell: In terms of the publishing of all FOI requests, if a person sought information of a personal nature and a third party sought the same information, does the office distinguish between the two? If I was seeking information on myself or if Deputy Twomey was seeking information on me, does the office regard that in different ways?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2012: Discussion (6 Feb 2013)

Kieran O'Donnell: If the office was to come up with register of all freedom of information requests and I was submitting a request on information that was very private to me-----