Results 2,701-2,720 of 32,837 for speaker:Catherine Connolly

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 31 - Transport, Tourism and Sport (23 Feb 2017)

Catherine Connolly: There were three systems. In the first one, the contractor bears all the risk.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 31 - Transport, Tourism and Sport (23 Feb 2017)

Catherine Connolly: In the second one, the State bears the risk.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 31 - Transport, Tourism and Sport (23 Feb 2017)

Catherine Connolly: It is shared risk.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 31 - Transport, Tourism and Sport (23 Feb 2017)

Catherine Connolly: What of the third one?

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 31 - Transport, Tourism and Sport (23 Feb 2017)

Catherine Connolly: Therefore, we have a nimble system where the State is reliant on an increase in traffic on our roads.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 31 - Transport, Tourism and Sport (23 Feb 2017)

Catherine Connolly: Could we have details of those three schemes and the payments made in compensation, or whatever wording the Department is using, sent to the Chairman and to us? I started off using the word "compensation". Could we have those, please?

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 31 - Transport, Tourism and Sport (23 Feb 2017)

Catherine Connolly: I have a specific question in relation to taxis. It arises from a representation I received but it is also general point as well and it relates to the decal symbol that one is obliged to display on a taxi. Taxi drivers seem to be obliged to display these 24 hours a day. According to the representations I have received, it has serious implications for their insurance. Could the Department...

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 31 - Transport, Tourism and Sport (23 Feb 2017)

Catherine Connolly: There is that issue and the issue of whether the representation on the taxi committee is fair. I will come back separately on the latter issue.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 31 - Transport, Tourism and Sport (23 Feb 2017)

Catherine Connolly: Great. With all of these lovely documents, I could paper my room. I was elected first elected a public representative in 1999. I cannot tell Mr. Doyle how many public transport documents I have seen in my 17 years. Smarter Travel Galway is, I would say without exaggeration, the 15th document for Galway alone. We have massive congestion on our roads at peak times. Galway, in...

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 31 - Transport, Tourism and Sport (23 Feb 2017)

Catherine Connolly: Mr. Doyle is correct. That is what they tell us. I have a completely different point of view. It is based on 17 years of going down a cul de sac in regard to an outer bypass with millions of euro spent on it. Then we go forward with a road. It is not an outer bypass; it is a ring-road. The public transport elements are tagged on to it. There is no paradigm shift here on the part of the...

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 31 - Transport, Tourism and Sport (23 Feb 2017)

Catherine Connolly: Deputy Cullinane mentioned that funding for the free travel scheme was frozen in 2010. The witnesses mentioned that the current cost of the scheme is €80 million, €75 million of which goes to the CIE group. Is that correct?

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 31 - Transport, Tourism and Sport (23 Feb 2017)

Catherine Connolly: I appreciate that but that has not happened. It was mentioned that only 8% of people in Galway use the bus service. People in Galway do not use the buses because the service is not frequent enough. There have been many proposals for a light rail system. I read an article in one of today's newspapers in which Mr. Conor Faughnan calls for a light rail system. A group of us in Galway have...

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 31 - Transport, Tourism and Sport (23 Feb 2017)

Catherine Connolly: The point I was making is that it is because that funding has remained frozen that CIE is an impossible position.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 31 - Transport, Tourism and Sport (23 Feb 2017)

Catherine Connolly: I would like to make a comment before I ask a specific question and a general question. Mr. Doyle has said that the NTA has the power to step in if Bus Éireann pulls out of a commercial route because it is not viable.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 31 - Transport, Tourism and Sport (23 Feb 2017)

Catherine Connolly: That seems to me like something out of Kafka. It seems that when Bus Éireann is obliged to pull out of a route because it is not viable, the NTA waits for it to pull out before setting terms for private operators to move in.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 31 - Transport, Tourism and Sport (23 Feb 2017)

Catherine Connolly: It really seems straight out of Kafka. At the same time, we are talking about getting more people to use public transport. That is a comment. My specific question relates to Fáilte Ireland, which does great work. I do not mean to be parochial when I mention a premises in Galway that has been empty for a long time. The building in question is in a prime spot in Salthill. The loss...

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 31 - Transport, Tourism and Sport (23 Feb 2017)

Catherine Connolly: Lovely.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 31 - Transport, Tourism and Sport (23 Feb 2017)

Catherine Connolly: There are 39 actions in the document.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 31 - Transport, Tourism and Sport (23 Feb 2017)

Catherine Connolly: Yes, that is it.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 31 - Transport, Tourism and Sport (23 Feb 2017)

Catherine Connolly: There are 49 actions laid out in this plan from 2009 to 2020. How many of those actions have been implemented? I know one has not been implemented because I took the trouble of checking yesterday. We were to bring in new legislation and a sustainable plan. I forget the exact title of it. The answer given yesterday is the same one given by Mr. Doyle, namely, that there was no need for an...