Results 15,281-15,300 of 32,961 for speaker:Paschal Donohoe

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: National Broadband Plan (18 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: As the Deputy will be aware and as the Taoiseach said yesterday in the Dáil, the €500 million indicative figure that previously existed in respect of this project was for a completely different level of coverage from the level we are now looking to deliver.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: National Broadband Plan (18 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: As the Taoiseach indicated yesterday, the memorandum referred to how we were going to get to villages but this is now a project seeking to provide coverage for up to 500,000 homes.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: National Broadband Plan (18 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: If the Deputy is asking me whether I am aware of, and involved in, the process regarding where the costs stand, the answer is "Yes." When the decision goes to Cabinet, it will be on the basis of costs and complexities which are known and understood and I will continue to play a role as member of Government in the decision-making process at that point in particular.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness (18 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: To ensure an effective and efficient response to urgent social housing needs throughout the entire country, a variety of mechanisms are provided for under Rebuilding Ireland, the Government's Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness. These include build, acquisition, lease, HAP and RAS. There are a variety of objectives behind this mix of delivery mechanisms, including speed of delivery,...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness (18 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: We need to look at what the figures are at the moment and at the balance between what we are spending in schemes like HAP and RAS and what we are spending to directly deliver homes. I want to put those figures on the record. The amount being spent to make use of existing houses is €526 million for 2018.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness (18 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: No. I will come to that. It is €143 million for RAS, €277 million for HAP and €106 million for leasing, which is a total of €526 million. To build new units, we provided for spending of €1.16 billion in 2018, of which €742 million is to build new homes and €420 million is to acquire homes that are being built across the State. Those are the...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: National Children's Hospital Expenditure (18 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: As I stated to Deputy Jonathan O'Brien in our debate last night on the national children's hospital project, when information comes into the Department regarding the delivery of the project it feeds into an online tracker. That is available but we are going to publicise it further in the coming weeks. I have to decide whether we need to go beyond that. Having quarterly reports come into my...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: National Children's Hospital Expenditure (18 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: I appreciate the Deputy recognising the scale of information that might come into my Department. I expect that any red flags regarding a project will be flagged to my Department. Many different difficulties develop with many projects along the way, however, though none on the scale of what we are now dealing with in respect of the national children's hospital project. It is first and...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: National Broadband Plan (18 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: Under the public spending code, before any tender process is run, the relevant procuring Department must first undertake a project appraisal to help inform whether the project should be approved to proceed to procurement or not. At that stage, my Department is involved in conducting a technical review of the cost benefit analysis undertaken by the line Department. In this case it is the...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: National Broadband Plan (18 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: Deputy Cowen is making many assumptions regarding how this project is going to develop and those assumptions have yet to be tested. The Deputy's view is underpinned by an assumption that I am not aware or not involved in what the cost of this process will be or decisions that will be made regarding it. I am actively involved in all of that. I have laid out what the process is to the Deputy...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: National Children's Hospital Expenditure (18 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 and 2 together. The management, delivery and oversight of individual investment programmes and public services within the agreed allocations are a key responsibility of every Department and Minister. With this in mind, the monitoring of the national children's hospital project, including regular progress reports, is a matter in the first instance for...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: National Children's Hospital Expenditure (18 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: My answer, when the Deputy sees it in written format, will slightly fill out some of the points I have made to him. I am clear that with business cases being developed now, particularly in the aftermath of the great challenges and difficulties we had with the national children's hospital, I am seeing two features in place more and more. First, I am seeing the costs in place refer to...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: National Children's Hospital Expenditure (18 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: My Department and I play a role in appraising and further understanding cost-benefit analyses that come into our Department. However, this is the case not just with analyses that come in from independent boards, but also with those that come in from Departments. To respond to the Deputy's second question about the participation of officials of mine on boards, we have seen a greater...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Procurement Contracts (18 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: The majority of public works projects are currently delivered using fixed price, lump sum contracts tendered on a competitive basis, with clear risk allocation set out in the tender documents.  These contracts represent the default tendering position for projects delivered under the Exchequer-funded element of the National Development Plan.   In line with...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Budget Targets (18 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: The demographic figures used to inform budget negotiations are based on an ex-ante analysis carried out by the Irish Government Economic and Evaluation Service (IGEES). Demographic cost pressures from 2017 to 2027 are set out in the IGEES staff paper ‘Budgetary Impact of Changing Demographics 2017 – 2027’ published in September, 2016. This paper is based on figures from...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Sector Staff (18 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: Since 2015 it has been possible to provide for significant increases in Government expenditure, which have allowed for the recruitment of additional staff across the public service.  At the end of 2014, there were 293,346 public service employees (on a full-time equivalent or FTE basis) and this increased to 330,576 (FTE) by end 2018.  In particular a large proportion...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Community Employment Schemes Supervisors (18 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: I propose to take Questions Nos. 17 and 19 together. This issue relates to a claim by community employment supervisors and assistant supervisorswho have been seeking, through their union representatives, the allocation of Exchequer funding to implement a 2008 Labour Court recommendation relating to the provision of a pension scheme. The matter was the subject of extensive discussion...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Procurement Regulations (18 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: Work to promote the incorporation of social and environmental considerations in public procurement is being progressed under the National Public Procurement Policy Framework which is the overarching policy framework for public procurement in Ireland. Under this framework, proposals to implement environmental considerations in public procurement are being developed through...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Sector Pay (18 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: The process of unwinding the Financial Emergency (FEMPI) legislation commenced under the Lansdowne Road Agreement 2016-2018 and will be completed under the Public Service Stability Agreement 2018-2020 (PSSA). The PSSA, which was negotiated in 2017, and the provisions of which were statutorily provided for under the terms of the Public Service Pay and Pensions Act 2017, allows for...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Capital Expenditure Programme (18 Apr 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: I propose to take Questions Nos. 22 and 25 together. I should first explain that as Minister for Public Expenditure & Reform I am responsible for setting the overall capital allocations across Departments and for monitoring monthly expenditure at a Departmental level.  Responsibility for the management and delivery of the individual investment projects, within the...