Results 2,261-2,280 of 3,777 for speaker:Marc Ó Cathasaigh
- Pre-European Council Meeting: Statements (25 Oct 2023)
Marc Ó Cathasaigh: It is entirely understandable and correct that the issue in Palestine has dominated this debate so far. However, I draw attention to the fact that Opposition speakers have so far concentrated entirely on that issue to the exclusion of all else. We have other issues coming before this European Council that are maybe not as pressing or urgent but are as important. There is no mention at all...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Citizens Assembly Report on Biodiversity Loss: Discussion (Resumed) (24 Oct 2023)
Marc Ó Cathasaigh: It might not be personally attractive to everyone, if Mr. Owens gets where I am going. People who are very well-off might have retrofitted their houses and might be driving electric vehicles. They might have a few bob in the bank. Could we find a way of putting that money to work from a nature and biodiversity perspective where investment is so needed? That is where the value of a green...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Public Service Performance Report 2022: Discussion (24 Oct 2023)
Marc Ó Cathasaigh: I have lot of questions so I may have to save some for the second round. I want to start by picking up where Deputy Jim O'Callaghan left off. He mentioned equality budgeting, performance budgeting and well-being budgeting and I was struck by the fact that there was no specific reference to the well-being framework. That framework was updated as recently as June of this year. I understand...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Public Service Performance Report 2022: Discussion (24 Oct 2023)
Marc Ó Cathasaigh: My first question is one I put to the witnesses' colleagues from the Department of Education this morning. The witnesses have detailed some of the work they do around equality budgeting. Have they had direction from the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform with regard to reporting under the well-being framework and also under the sustainable...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Public Service Performance Report 2022: Discussion (24 Oct 2023)
Marc Ó Cathasaigh: I thank Ms Duffy. That was a very helpful answer. That tagging process is a really interesting idea. We do not want to end up in a situation where all these parallel reporting mechanisms are being done and it creates more regulatory burdens on the Department. Speaking as a Member of the Oireachtas trying to oversee spending, we are just getting this piecemeal picture. If that tagging...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Public Service Performance Report 2022: Discussion (24 Oct 2023)
Marc Ó Cathasaigh: It is one of the areas because generally across the board in terms of education at both primary and secondary and tertiary level, Ireland performs really well. We have a track record of which we can be really proud. We would always like more investment and to have more places and future long-term funding and all those things, but we perform very well by an international comparison in terms...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Public Service Performance Report 2022: Discussion (24 Oct 2023)
Marc Ó Cathasaigh: Ms Duffy is telling me it is a function of the newness of her Department, essentially. I might be straying outside what we are supposed to be doing today but there is huge frustration with the National Training Fund, NTF. I acknowledge there has been a promise to look at the legislative provisions that surround the NTF but I know from talking to employers that they are very frustrated when...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Public Service Performance Report 2022: Discussion (24 Oct 2023)
Marc Ó Cathasaigh: This is very much a spitballing question. However, if Ms McGarry was to indicate the amount of work she sees involved in that process of reviewing and then knowing the ability of the Civil Service to apply in an agile and timely manner, how long would the Department put on that? Is that an unfair question?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Public Service Performance Report 2022: Discussion (24 Oct 2023)
Marc Ó Cathasaigh: There is concern in that regard because the humanities feel silent within that legislation.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Public Service Performance Report 2022: Discussion (24 Oct 2023)
Marc Ó Cathasaigh: I will move on to programme C. This is coming from someone who has a background in humanities, which is what I studied at college. Programme C concerns research, innovation and science. I have a nagging concern in this regard. Many of the metrics are performing very well, apart from postdoctorates funded by Science Foundation Ireland, which is the one area that is lagging the most. I do...
- Road Safety: Statements (26 Oct 2023)
Marc Ó Cathasaigh: The last time I was knocked down, I was dressed as Big Bird. I do not quite mean that literally but I am 6 ft 1 in. and I was dressed from head to toe in bright yellow. I was going through a roundabout when a driver came in, ploughed into the side of me and I went out over the bonnet. I received the SIDNY apology, that is, "Sorry, I didn't notice you." It therefore does not necessarily...
- Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Water Quality (26 Oct 2023)
Marc Ó Cathasaigh: I thank the Ceann Comhairle. I will make the usual refrain that notwithstanding the excellence of the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, I know that this is not an area within his Ministry. It is a pity that none of the relevant Ministers is in a position to be able to attend the debate this evening.
- Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Water Quality (26 Oct 2023)
Marc Ó Cathasaigh: I will not swear blind that I do not have a notification in my inbox but most Deputies have more to be doing than watching their inbox all day long. If it has arrived, I certainly have not seen it. This is a welcome opportunity to discuss another in a series of excellent reports from the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, detailing our water quality. The latest is titled, Urban Waste...
- Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Water Quality (26 Oct 2023)
Marc Ó Cathasaigh: Notwithstanding my initial frustration, I recognise that the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, is well placed to understand the imperative for action, in particular, on urban wastewater. I often use the analogy of high blood pressure as opposed to having your front teeth knocked out. Someone who has their front teeth knocked out will act on it straightaway because everybody can see it....
- Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2022
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 3: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities
Chapter 4: Accountability of the Central Funding of Local Authorities. (26 Oct 2023) Marc Ó Cathasaigh: I am going to stick with housing in the broad sense but change focus. I want to ask about local authority retrofit of social housing. My understanding of it is that the target the Department set is to retrofit all social homes by 2050. By implication, that means by 2049 there will still be some of our most vulnerable people living in cold houses with high energy prices, and not just cold...
- Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2022
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 3: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities
Chapter 4: Accountability of the Central Funding of Local Authorities. (26 Oct 2023) Marc Ó Cathasaigh: Similarly, there is a good shot of social housing that is nowhere near B2. Have we some sort of analysis across our social housing stock on where we are in energy efficiency? Are we still looking at a lot of F- and G-rated homes, 1930s council housing stock, where, no matter how much coal is shovelled onto the fire, the heat goes straight up the chimney? Have we a clear and comprehensive...
- Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2022
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 3: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities
Chapter 4: Accountability of the Central Funding of Local Authorities. (26 Oct 2023) Marc Ó Cathasaigh: That would be useful to have. If 140,000 homes are in social housing, I would like to understand how many are F- and G-rated. There is no heating an F- or G-rated home. You are going to heat one room of your home and you are going to do it at great cost. Energy efficiency means a lot.
- Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2022
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 3: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities
Chapter 4: Accountability of the Central Funding of Local Authorities. (26 Oct 2023) Marc Ó Cathasaigh: That still leaves-----
- Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2022
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 3: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities
Chapter 4: Accountability of the Central Funding of Local Authorities. (26 Oct 2023) Marc Ó Cathasaigh: I thank Mr. Doyle. There is a lot more to dig into there, but I want to have a look at water issues. Another Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, report out this morning tells us that, shockingly, three Olympic-sized swimming pools of untreated raw sewage go into Ireland's water systems every day. Some of the comments made by the EPA director, Dr. Tom Ryan, indicate that, 30 years after...
- Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2022
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 3: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities
Chapter 4: Accountability of the Central Funding of Local Authorities. (26 Oct 2023) Marc Ó Cathasaigh: I understand.