Results 29,621-29,640 of 33,214 for speaker:Paschal Donohoe

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Expenditure Policy (19 Jan 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: All Government Departments are required to carefully manage public funds and to ensure that the best possible value is obtained whenever public money is spent or invested. Budgetary and expenditure reforms remain a key feature of public expenditure management throughout all Departments. This important goal has been fully embedded across the system of Government and is progressed in a number...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Expenditure Policy (19 Jan 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: I propose to take Questions Nos. 220, 221 and 224 together. International events such as Brexit; Covid-19; inflation and the humanitarian consequences of the war in Ukraine have posed significant challenges to Ireland in recent years. Public expenditure has adjusted to meet the changed circumstances imposed by these external events through providing additional temporary funding to support our...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Procurement Contracts (19 Jan 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: I propose to take Questions Nos. 222 and 223 together. Public procurement is governed by EU legislation and national regulations with the aim of promoting an open, competitive and non-discriminatory public procurement regime that delivers the best value for money. All Irish public bodies are obliged to spend or invest public funds with care, and to obtain optimal value for money in...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Capital Expenditure Programme (19 Jan 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: The National Development Plan (NDP) published in October 2021 provides a detailed and positive vision for Ireland over the next 10 years and delivers total public investment of €165 billion over the period 2021-2030. As Minister for Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery, and Reform I am responsible for setting the overall capital allocations across Departments. Management and delivery of...

Statement by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (24 Jan 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: Thank you Ceann Comhairle. As I laid out in my statement to this House last Wednesday, I have been undertaking a review of my 2016 general election expenses in recent weeks. I also reviewed expenses incurred during the 2020 general election. In seeking to determine the full facts of the matter, I consulted with the local organisation in Fine Gael about any involvement from Michael Stone in...

Statement by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (24 Jan 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the Deputy for his questions. It is important to be clear, when he uses the word "donation", that what exactly we are referring to here is an inadvertent corporate donation that I have now declared and will return to SIPO. The donation he referred to repeatedly that is at the heart of this is the issue of postering and the donation to which he refers is the commercial value that is...

Statement by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (24 Jan 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: -----I will make the point that this refers to postering that I assumed was done on a voluntary basis. He asked me who made the allegation; who passed on the point in 2017. It was a journalist at that point. I have been unable to determine who that is. As regards the review I initiated from the end of November across December, which took time to do, at that time I believed, but it took me...

Statement by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (24 Jan 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the Deputy for recognising that the donation to which we are referring here is the putting up of posters. It is postering that I assumed was happening on a voluntary basis-----

Statement by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (24 Jan 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: -----that has created an issue for which I now must be accountable in the context of the return of my SIPO forms and expenses, which I have done. As regards who carried out the review, I asked those who are involved in my constituency organisation and my team who have been involved in the campaign. As I said, until recently - I made a return in respect of my expenses for 2016 - I believed...

Statement by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (24 Jan 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: To answer the question the Deputy put to me regarding the action I did not take in 2017-----

Statement by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (24 Jan 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: -----that is one of the many issues for which I hold myself accountable. I look back at that point and what I should have done in 2017 when I became aware of the issue was to amend my electoral expenses at that time to take account of the use of a commercial van that had a value of €140 at that point. It is one of the examples of my assuming that activity had been provided on a...

Statement by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (24 Jan 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: -----and that commercial issue I should have recognised.

Statement by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (24 Jan 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the Deputy for his two questions. To be clear, it was only as I initiated a more thorough review of the 2016 campaign in the aftermath of receiving further contact that it became apparent to me that those individuals had been paid, but they were not paid for by me-----

Statement by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (24 Jan 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: -----or by Fine Gael Dublin Central.

Statement by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (24 Jan 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: I acknowledge the point. The key issue here is at that point it constituted a declaration. I accept that point. The key mistake I made, which I have acknowledged to the House this evening-----

Statement by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (24 Jan 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: -----was an acknowledgement that I had assumed they were all done on a voluntary basis.

Statement by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (24 Jan 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: As regards the number of posters that were put up, I am afraid I have not been able to determine how many posters were put up but what I have been able to determine-----

Statement by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (24 Jan 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: I do not know if the Deputy is interested in my answer or my head but what he is going to get is-----

Statement by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (24 Jan 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: -----the best answers that I have available-----

Statement by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (24 Jan 2023)

Paschal Donohoe: The best answer that I have available is that-----