Results 2,141-2,160 of 5,587 for speaker:Kevin Humphreys
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Proposed Incinerator at Poolbeg: Dublin City Council (22 Jan 2014)
Kevin Humphreys: Overall expenditure for the county is €96 million. For Dublin City Council involves it a €10 million add-on for a district heating project that may not work.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Proposed Incinerator at Poolbeg: Dublin City Council (22 Jan 2014)
Kevin Humphreys: It would be helpful if Mr. Phillips explained at some stage the decision process. As a member of Dublin City Council, I never had sight of approval of the expenditure on the district heating element. I had always presumed it was part of the expenditure on the incinerator. Will Mr. Phillips revert to me on this point?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Proposed Incinerator at Poolbeg: Dublin City Council (22 Jan 2014)
Kevin Humphreys: District heating system expenditure was approved by city council management rather than those responsible for the overall project. It is all part of what I would regard as the same body of expenditure. A remark was made in answer to Deputy Brian Stanley's question to the effect that Covanta had won the project. Is that technically correct?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Proposed Incinerator at Poolbeg: Dublin City Council (22 Jan 2014)
Kevin Humphreys: Covanta never tendered for the project.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Proposed Incinerator at Poolbeg: Dublin City Council (22 Jan 2014)
Kevin Humphreys: It was actually included in chapter 11, or whatever chapter it was, but it was technically bankrupt when the project was being put to tender.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Proposed Incinerator at Poolbeg: Dublin City Council (22 Jan 2014)
Kevin Humphreys: Elsam or Dong stepped out. Was there not an opportunity at that stage to cut our losses and change the contract? The dance partners were changing.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Proposed Incinerator at Poolbeg: Dublin City Council (22 Jan 2014)
Kevin Humphreys: The alarm bells were clearly ringing in 2007 to suggest the project was not viable. Dance partners were changing. Covanta was stepping in and Elsam and Dong were stepping out. Without great scrutiny, the contract was passed on to Covanta.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Proposed Incinerator at Poolbeg: Dublin City Council (22 Jan 2014)
Kevin Humphreys: Perhaps the delegation might help me with this. Could someone explain to me how the contract was managed and governed? Was there a management programme? Was there a group responsible for management on a monthly basis?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Proposed Incinerator at Poolbeg: Dublin City Council (22 Jan 2014)
Kevin Humphreys: How often did that small team in the city council meet?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Proposed Incinerator at Poolbeg: Dublin City Council (22 Jan 2014)
Kevin Humphreys: However, significant decisions were being made during the period in question. We now have no way of tracking the decisions through minutes of meetings. We do not know what was even discussed at the level in question?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Proposed Incinerator at Poolbeg: Dublin City Council (22 Jan 2014)
Kevin Humphreys: There is a set of changes relating to the put-or-pay element of the contract. Will somebody explain how these changes came about? Who agreed to them?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Proposed Incinerator at Poolbeg: Dublin City Council (22 Jan 2014)
Kevin Humphreys: I will not take up Mr. Keegan on this issue to any great extent because he was not present at the time in question. When the put or pay clause was included in the Panda agreement, it was explained at city council level that the council would get a preferential tonnage rate and it could sell this tonnage to the incinerator and make a profit on it. The Panda judgment did not make a difference...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Proposed Incinerator at Poolbeg: Dublin City Council (22 Jan 2014)
Kevin Humphreys: There were questions at the oral hearings about sludge and the contracting of the spreading of biofert by the contractor in the south east. Are there plans to burn the sludge and the biofert in the incinerator? Will there be a cost to the incinerator as a result of the thermal output this will generate? I refer to bottom ash and fly ash and different contamination levels. The ash that...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Proposed Incinerator at Poolbeg: Dublin City Council (22 Jan 2014)
Kevin Humphreys: I recall questioning Matt Twomey at great length on this at a Dublin City Council meeting. He said the biofert generated from the sludge would never be burned because it is a financial asset to the council as a fertiliser. I accept Mr. O'Sullivan's honesty. That was always my belief but it was part of the propaganda tied to the incinerator.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Proposed Incinerator at Poolbeg: Dublin City Council (22 Jan 2014)
Kevin Humphreys: I accept this is Mr. O'Sullivan's plan.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Proposed Incinerator at Poolbeg: Dublin City Council (22 Jan 2014)
Kevin Humphreys: First, my question on air quality was not answered. Second, approximately €52 million was spent on site acquisition. What is the current value of the site in question? Moreover the Hibernian Molasses site, on which the majority of the money, €31 million, was spent, had four tanks. Why did the city council build a facility with 11 tanks for that company? This appears to me...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Proposed Incinerator at Poolbeg: Dublin City Council (22 Jan 2014)
Kevin Humphreys: Is the city council not obliged to keep an asset database and would it not be part of the assets of the local authority?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Proposed Incinerator at Poolbeg: Dublin City Council (22 Jan 2014)
Kevin Humphreys: Will Mr. Keegan forward them to the committee?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Proposed Incinerator at Poolbeg: Dublin City Council (22 Jan 2014)
Kevin Humphreys: With the Chair's indulgence, I wish to ask a few more questions. I will be requesting that we invite Mr. John Tierney before the committee to discuss this issue but, rather than bringing Mr. Keegan back, I would prefer to put my questions to him now about issues that are his responsibility. Mr. Tierney should also come before us given that he was the manager in situ.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Proposed Incinerator at Poolbeg: Dublin City Council (22 Jan 2014)
Kevin Humphreys: I will make the proposal at the end of the meeting but first I wish to put a couple of brief questions to Mr. Keegan.