Results 22,541-22,560 of 23,109 for speaker:Paddy Burke
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Matters relating to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Discussion (3 Dec 2019)
Paddy Burke: What form do the sanctions take?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Matters relating to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Discussion (3 Dec 2019)
Paddy Burke: Does Mr. Watt believe that middle management could be a problem in that there may be too many layers in the Civil Service?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Matters relating to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Discussion (3 Dec 2019)
Paddy Burke: He does. Is Mr. Watt making recommendations on how-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Matters relating to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Discussion (3 Dec 2019)
Paddy Burke: Most people believed that the banks were the whole cause of the crash but the public deficit was probably the biggest cause of the crash. How sustainable does Mr. Watt believe that things are at the moment? We have seen a huge increase again in the Civil Service, the HSE, and all areas of public expenditure. All of these areas have defined pensions and lump sums, which comprise a huge...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Matters relating to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Discussion (3 Dec 2019)
Paddy Burke: Mr. Watt is saying then that it is not sustainable at the moment if the present trend is to continue.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Matters relating to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Discussion (3 Dec 2019)
Paddy Burke: Mr. Watt referred in his statement to payroll and human resources. In many companies they are outsourcing their payroll and human resources sections. In many corporations, these functions are centralised. Is it the case within the whole Civil Service that each area has its own human resources and-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Matters relating to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Discussion (3 Dec 2019)
Paddy Burke: That is for the 325,000 civil servants. This does not cover local authorities or any of that area.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Matters relating to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Discussion (3 Dec 2019)
Paddy Burke: What about the HSE? One of the things that happened before was that PPARS grew into being a monster.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Matters relating to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Discussion (3 Dec 2019)
Paddy Burke: Is it centralised?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Matters relating to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Discussion (3 Dec 2019)
Paddy Burke: Is that in one area?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Matters relating to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Discussion (3 Dec 2019)
Paddy Burke: I have seen recently where a number of new agencies have been set up. These are all Dublin-based. I cannot remember them specifically but some of them are old like the Standards in Public Office Commission, SIPO. They are all centralised in the one block. All of the new agencies for the past ten, 15 or 20 years have been based in Dublin. Mr. Watt has mentioned that he is looking at...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Matters relating to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Discussion (3 Dec 2019)
Paddy Burke: Has Mr. Watt's Department looked at decentralisation recently to see how it might help, might take people of Dublin or ease the current housing problem in Dublin? I read a report recently where quite a number of civil servants, up to 5,000 or 6,000, would like to transfer immediately out of Dublin. Has he looked at that whole area?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Matters relating to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Discussion (3 Dec 2019)
Paddy Burke: There are other areas where the Office of Public Works, OPW, is involved and it might have been much cheaper to have them located outside the city. Storage, for instance, would be located much more cheaply throughout the country rather than to have it in the most expensive part of the country. Has Mr. Watt looked at that area?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Matters relating to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Discussion (3 Dec 2019)
Paddy Burke: Finally, I will turn to decision-making. The biggest problem we have as public representatives is getting a decision from somebody in the HSE, the county council, the Civil Service or elsewhere. These people may not be around on a particular day and if we ring back, we get somebody else. Getting somebody to make a decision is impossible in many cases. What is being done about this or...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Matters relating to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Discussion (3 Dec 2019)
Paddy Burke: There are no consequences when somebody fails to make a decision because he or she has not received a diktat.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Matters relating to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Discussion (3 Dec 2019)
Paddy Burke: We have seen over a number of years breaches in ICT because of malware. It happened in Meath County Council and the HSE. Are these processes centralised or do the local authorities and the HSE have their own sections to combat malware?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Matters relating to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Discussion (3 Dec 2019)
Paddy Burke: I remember going on deputations to Mr. Watt's office in regard to that. Obviously, he had, or has, a function in it.
- Seanad: Local Government Funding: Statements (5 Dec 2019)
Paddy Burke: During the Seanad campaign of 2016, every candidate from all parties and none knew exactly where councillors stood on pay and conditions. Various issues came up at that time, especially pensions and how the PRSI rate they paid did not qualify them for the contributory pension and an increase in pay for the extra work they did, particularly in the context of boundary changes and the abolition...
- Seanad: Local Government Funding: Statements (5 Dec 2019)
Paddy Burke: The Minister of State said: "A local government funding baseline review group was also established to consider the methodology to determine local authority funding baselines and to inform the distribution of any additional funding that could become available for general operational purposes, for example as a result of the implementation of recommendations in the LPT review." Is this extra...
- Seanad: Local Government Funding: Statements (5 Dec 2019)
Paddy Burke: Is the Minister of State referring to those?