Results 6,981-7,000 of 8,833 for speaker:Verona Murphy

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospital Equipment (9 Feb 2022)

Verona Murphy: 172. To ask the Minister for Health if funding for the installation of a public MRI scanner facility at Wexford General Hospital will be included in the HSE Capital Plan 2022; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7091/22]

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Third Level Education (8 Feb 2022)

Verona Murphy: 833. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if his Department informed third-level education providers of forestry in Ireland that their graduates are not capable of completing habitat surveys on existing forest sites and on sites proposed for afforestation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6546/22]

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Departmental Staff (8 Feb 2022)

Verona Murphy: 834. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of staff with forestry qualifications and the number of staff including contracted in personnel with ecology qualifications in 2021 and to date in 2022; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6547/22]

Public Accounts Committee: Transport Infrastructure Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (3 Feb 2022)

Verona Murphy: I thank Mr. Walsh for his correspondence regarding the matter with which we engaged at our last meeting. At that time, I raised the issue of roadside parking of heavy goods vehicles, HGVs, in Rosslare. My next comment is not aimed at Mr. Walsh. In general, the solution is not very satisfactory. I know it is an interim solution. We continue to park these vehicles on the roadside albeit...

Public Accounts Committee: Transport Infrastructure Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (3 Feb 2022)

Verona Murphy: Regarding the stage both of these projects are at and bearing in mind that, unfortunately, I can report that there was a fatality last November on one of these projects involving the section of the road we are talking about, €5 million has been spent. Should we not get funding up to 2025? We might as well just flush that money down the toilet. Would Mr. Walsh agree with that?

Public Accounts Committee: Transport Infrastructure Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (3 Feb 2022)

Verona Murphy: Really? My experience of it is the N11. In three years, environmental progress would dictate that we do new studies and all of those routes may be cast aside because of some new regulation or legislation. This is what tends to happen. We have spent €5 million and what is required here is €1.5 million to ensure that phase 2 of the N24 goes ahead and €2 million to...

Public Accounts Committee: Transport Infrastructure Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (3 Feb 2022)

Verona Murphy: Yes, it was. Due consideration was not given. We are in the throes of Brexit. We are now hearing that the Northern Ireland protocol is not going to be operated. There has been a substantial increase in traffic on these routes from Rosslare Europort and yet these routes are being sidelined. I do not understand the methodology. These are primary routes to the development of what is now...

Public Accounts Committee: Transport Infrastructure Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (3 Feb 2022)

Verona Murphy: What percentage of traffic travels on the N25 to Rosslare Europort?

Public Accounts Committee: Transport Infrastructure Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (3 Feb 2022)

Verona Murphy: How can TII make that decision if Mr. Walsh does not know the number? Is there a higher percentage on the N11?

Public Accounts Committee: Transport Infrastructure Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (3 Feb 2022)

Verona Murphy: If that is the case, what did TII base its decision on?

Public Accounts Committee: Transport Infrastructure Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (3 Feb 2022)

Verona Murphy: I appreciate that this is very important. The provision for the continuation of the N11 has received significant funding but Mr. Walsh must appreciate and agree that we had carried out all of that study previously and it was literally wasted money because we had to just do it all again because it was done so long ago. Is that not the case?

Public Accounts Committee: Transport Infrastructure Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (3 Feb 2022)

Verona Murphy: That is what I just said, which Mr. Walsh disagreed with. What I am saying is that this is about value for money for the Exchequer, about road safety and about critical roads infrastructure to support an entire region, the south east, and it is €3.5 million. I think it is foolhardy, and I mean foolhardy, of TII to think that if it waits until 2025 to provide this funding, we will...

Public Accounts Committee: Transport Infrastructure Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (3 Feb 2022)

Verona Murphy: I do not know that Mr. Walsh does.

Public Accounts Committee: Transport Infrastructure Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (3 Feb 2022)

Verona Murphy: It is not so much frustration. It is the level of the lack of consideration for the public purse and value for money. The reality is that Mr. Walsh just commented to one of my colleagues that the longer projects are delayed, the more they cost. Whether we are talking about them being in construction phases or not, that is the reality. We have seen it with the N11. What we are calling...

Public Accounts Committee: Transport Infrastructure Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (3 Feb 2022)

Verona Murphy: I thought I had a minute. That is fine. I will come back in.

Public Accounts Committee: Transport Infrastructure Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (3 Feb 2022)

Verona Murphy: Just before I finish, Chair, I ask Mr. Walsh-----

Public Accounts Committee: Transport Infrastructure Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (3 Feb 2022)

Verona Murphy: -----to provide the detail as to why and how the decision was made on the N24-N25 funding not being allocated for 2022.

Public Accounts Committee: Transport Infrastructure Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (3 Feb 2022)

Verona Murphy: What I want to see, please, is the consideration that was given to these projects.

Public Accounts Committee: Transport Infrastructure Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (3 Feb 2022)

Verona Murphy: I will ask about the deficit in the road budget. Wexford has a deficit year on year up to current budgets of €68.9 million. Is there a proposal by which TII can make up for that deficit?

Public Accounts Committee: Transport Infrastructure Ireland: Financial Statements 2020 (3 Feb 2022)

Verona Murphy: I am not talking about the TII’s schemes, but the actual roads budget. It was cut back from 2008 onwards. We were getting €18 million in 2008 but that was cut back to €12 million and then to €9 million. Now, we are back up to €18 million. However, in the interim, a deficit of €68.9 million has been accrued.