Results 521-540 of 6,100 for speaker:Mairéad Farrell

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works (2 Jul 2025)

Mairéad Farrell: I will briefly outline what was said in private session and apologies because my MS Teams is not working. The OPW works with land orders to record rights of way, the Department of heritage deals with property issues, and the OPW has a programme of work around the monuments for which it has responsibility. Regarding public rights of way, the OPW has no power. This is a matter for local...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works (2 Jul 2025)

Mairéad Farrell: I will ask my questions now and then those Members who are not committee members will have an opportunity to ask theirs. I have raised with the Minister of State previously in the Dáil Chamber the issue of the property management function within the OPW. I know from the response to a recent parliamentary question that since March, the HSE has had approximately 30 vacant buildings....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works (2 Jul 2025)

Mairéad Farrell: These are directly managed by the HSE.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works (2 Jul 2025)

Mairéad Farrell: A number of vacant properties have been mentioned today. Are the majority of these directly managed by the OPW?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works (2 Jul 2025)

Mairéad Farrell: How many of the OPW senior staff have commercial property experience? How many of them have commercial property management qualifications?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works (2 Jul 2025)

Mairéad Farrell: That is fair enough. It is a very specific question. This is an issue of concern I have and I have raised it with the Minister of State previously. I have been raising as an issue in recent years that I feel the property management function in the OPW is not working in the way it should. I hope the Minister of State will take a look at this and see how it can be managed better.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works (2 Jul 2025)

Mairéad Farrell: That is good and I wish the Minister of State every success with it because we have had many examples of it not working up to now. At the end of the day, it is taxpayers' money and there are buildings that could be used for all sorts of purposes. Has the programme of building Ukrainian modular homes been completed at this point?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works (2 Jul 2025)

Mairéad Farrell: When does the Minister of State expect it to be completed?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works (2 Jul 2025)

Mairéad Farrell: Does he know what the final cost is estimated to be at this point?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works (2 Jul 2025)

Mairéad Farrell: What is the difference between the estimated cost and the final cost?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works (2 Jul 2025)

Mairéad Farrell: The Minister of State can provide the committee with the information. A number of issues have arisen with the OPW and I have raised them with the Minister of State. I wish him every success and I hope we do not see the likes of what has happened occur again because it creates lot of anger. I am sure the Minister of State and his officials know this better than most from working in the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works (2 Jul 2025)

Mairéad Farrell: I know the Minister of State will furnish a note to the committee on the leasing of properties to former and current civil servants. When did that practice begin? Does the Minister of State know when it began? Perhaps he is not sure.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works (2 Jul 2025)

Mairéad Farrell: It is people who work the land.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works (2 Jul 2025)

Mairéad Farrell: We see them in graveyards sometimes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works (2 Jul 2025)

Mairéad Farrell: I thank the Minister of State. It was not clear for everybody from the start but I presumed it was people working on the sites. It is the same as what we had in the past, whereby people lived in graveyards if they were working in them.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works (2 Jul 2025)

Mairéad Farrell: That is what this is about.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works (2 Jul 2025)

Mairéad Farrell: I am conscious a number of other speakers want to come in and when you are one of the final speakers most of the questions tend to have already been asked. I will now open up the discussion to others. I call an Teachta Cronin.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works (2 Jul 2025)

Mairéad Farrell: If that is the case with the other issues, then we will go into private session.

GPO and Moore Street Regeneration as a 1916 Cultural Quarter: Motion [Private Members] (1 Jul 2025)

Mairéad Farrell: Where else in the world would a building from which a rebellion was led and from which the independence of a country in its entirety was proclaimed be the subject of an attempt by the government of the day to get rid of that historic tradition by having the commercialisation of the building as its mainstay? Would the French commercialise the Bastille? This is one of the proudest buildings...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (1 Jul 2025)

Mairéad Farrell: We have a domestic violence epidemic in this country, North and South. Every single week now in my weekly clinics, women disclose domestic violence to me. Reporting of domestic violence has increased everywhere, including in Domestic Violence Response Galway. It is clear that something needs to change. I understand and recognise that is an enormous task to undertake, as domestic violence...