Results 25,061-25,080 of 33,175 for speaker:Paschal Donohoe
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Estimates for Public Services 2017 (Revised): Discussion (17 Jan 2017)
Paschal Donohoe: My God, that is news to me.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Estimates for Public Services 2017 (Revised): Discussion (17 Jan 2017)
Paschal Donohoe: I was not expecting that charge today.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Estimates for Public Services 2017 (Revised): Discussion (17 Jan 2017)
Paschal Donohoe: I will begin with health expenditure and then deal with the Deputy's points on pay policy. I will fully answer the question on staffing because it is important to put this on the record. In December 2013 there were 8,353 people working in the medical and dental sectors of our health service. That figure was 9,692 in November 2016, an increase of 16%. There were 34,169 nurses, there are...
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Estimates for Public Services 2017 (Revised): Discussion (17 Jan 2017)
Paschal Donohoe: Before we assess a policy, we should allow it to be announced. I understand that will happen very soon. I know the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, will make an announcement regarding an action plan for rural Ireland. My understanding is that the challenges rural Ireland faces, which I know well and have experienced, regarding depopulation and the availability of public services are a concern...
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Estimates for Public Services 2017 (Revised): Discussion (17 Jan 2017)
Paschal Donohoe: I cannot for the life of me extrapolate from the statement I made to the Deputy how I confirmed her view on the policy.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Estimates for Public Services 2017 (Revised): Discussion (17 Jan 2017)
Paschal Donohoe: I said we should await the announcement of a policy before we make our minds up about it. How the Deputy can deduce from that statement the content of the policy is a matter for her. There is nothing at all short-sighted in what I have said. I can only assume that her opposition to this scheme is shared by Deputies Kelly and Penrose and I look forward to hearing them confirm that.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Estimates for Public Services 2017 (Revised): Discussion (17 Jan 2017)
Paschal Donohoe: I will not give a quick answer to any of the Deputy's questions because if I do so, he will be back here holding me to account on it. I have said that I will work across 2017 to identify how we might fund the sum out of public expenditure and savings within public expenditure overall in the same way the same approach last year yielded €168 million-----
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Estimates for Public Services 2017 (Revised): Discussion (17 Jan 2017)
Paschal Donohoe: Yes.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Estimates for Public Services 2017 (Revised): Discussion (17 Jan 2017)
Paschal Donohoe: No-----
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Estimates for Public Services 2017 (Revised): Discussion (17 Jan 2017)
Paschal Donohoe: If the Deputy is going to let me put a point to him, he should let me finish it off.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Estimates for Public Services 2017 (Revised): Discussion (17 Jan 2017)
Paschal Donohoe: I have answered the Deputy's question-----
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Estimates for Public Services 2017 (Revised): Discussion (17 Jan 2017)
Paschal Donohoe: -----but I will not get into a binary approach because the Deputy will have me back before the committee holding me accountable for the answers I give him.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Estimates for Public Services 2017 (Revised): Discussion (17 Jan 2017)
Paschal Donohoe: It is normally when people assure me that matters will not be confrontational that they end up being confrontational. This is like AOB in a party meeting.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Estimates for Public Services 2017 (Revised): Discussion (17 Jan 2017)
Paschal Donohoe: I did not in budget 2017 identify an efficiency figure and I did not at that point identify the savings we had delivered across the entirety of 2016.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Estimates for Public Services 2017 (Revised): Discussion (17 Jan 2017)
Paschal Donohoe: I did not identify an efficiency figure because at that point there were three months remaining in the calendar year.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Estimates for Public Services 2017 (Revised): Discussion (17 Jan 2017)
Paschal Donohoe: Excuse me, I thought the Deputy was referring to 2016. Regarding why I did not identify such an efficiency savings figure for 2017, I will not go into a spending review and lay out the precise figure I am looking to save. The reason for this is I want this to be an ongoing approach that will happen every year, and if I lay down the exact figure we are looking to save, I will perhaps create...
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Estimates for Public Services 2017 (Revised): Discussion (17 Jan 2017)
Paschal Donohoe: The spending review will be implemented this year over one third of Government expenditure but it would then be an ongoing process over a three to three and a half year period. My objective is that it will have covered off the entirety of Government expenditure.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Estimates for Public Services 2017 (Revised): Discussion (17 Jan 2017)
Paschal Donohoe: It is an extraordinary statement to say one is not interested in the merits or demerits of a policy position.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Estimates for Public Services 2017 (Revised): Discussion (17 Jan 2017)
Paschal Donohoe: To respond to the Deputy, I have a responsibility across this year, to this committee and to the Oireachtas, to explain how we will pay for the €120 million, alongside delivering the other commitments that we have for 2017. I will discharge that responsibility across this year. The reason I have brought forward that proposal for €120 million, and I am confident I will be able...
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Estimates for Public Services 2017 (Revised): Discussion (17 Jan 2017)
Paschal Donohoe: I do not have the luxury to look at a decision and say that regardless of its rights and wrongs, we are going to analyse it and suspend the rights and wrongs of that policy. I do not have that luxury. It may be one that the Deputy has-----