Results 31,441-31,460 of 33,289 for speaker:Paschal Donohoe

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (24 Sep 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: Of course I accept that the spending of so much money on a bike shed has caused great anger among the public. It was not a decision that I made but I am responsible for the use of the country's money. I understand that the Office of Public Works recently engaged with the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission. I believe a report from it will be forthcoming on the subject and will lay out...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (24 Sep 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: The Deputy raised the status of the occupied territories Bill with me earlier this afternoon and I did not respond to her. I am glad to have the chance to do so now. She will be aware, given her legal eminence, of the fact that trade competence sits with the European Union and the Commission of the European Union rather than us at national level. The Taoiseach has, given the obvious...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (24 Sep 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the Deputy for raising that matter. I am sorry to hear of the obvious distress that would have been caused to the Deputy's constituent who had to contact her. From a funding point of view, we are providing, and will continue to provide, record levels of funding to the HSE. The funding that was provided for this year, and which will be provided next year, is a comprehensive attempt...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (24 Sep 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: The funding is coming from the Government to recruit more and more people for the HSE. I will ensure that the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, is aware of this matter. I believe he is, given that it was referenced in the Dáil last week. I will do so again.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (24 Sep 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: In the middle of the year, we provided additional funding to the HSE for not only this year, but in advance of budget 2025, to ensure it is better funded than it had been before and to respond to the funding difficulties that began to develop at the start of this year. The HSE can only recruit those it is funded to recruit. It is not an embargo. It is the way every other Government...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (24 Sep 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: It does not matter how much money we make available to the HSE in the Deputy's world. It does not matter what we do. It is a fundamental part of how we have to spend the country's money that in order to recruit somebody to do a role, the money has to be there to pay for it. The budget that we make available to every part of our public services contains a recruitment budget that we need our...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (24 Sep 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: The Deputy is a person with a great interest in scientific matters and has a lot more expertise than I do in this area. I hope he knows that the HSE, if it is procuring genomics testing in other parts of the European Union or elsewhere in the world rather than Ireland, will only do so if such testing is carried out in laboratories in which it has confidence. It will only send samples to...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (24 Sep 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: I understood the board had been reconstituted.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (24 Sep 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: After the resignation of the board that took place a number of years ago, the Department of Finance was successful in reappointing the board. I will raise the issue with the Minister, Deputy Chambers, this week in the context of our budget discussions and see whether there are any issues I can help with. I imagine that the heart of the issue is not lack of funding, but the difficulty of...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (24 Sep 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: Okay.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (24 Sep 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. The Government has invested significantly in further education and training in recent years by increasing funding from approximately €900 million in 2020 to just over €1 billion. That is all in current terms. We have also put in place a new grade for adult educator, to which the Deputy referred. That post and role was formally...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (24 Sep 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: I will have to come back to the Deputy on the matter. It is a specific issue and he is looking for a specific figure I do not have at the moment. I will find it and make sure the Deputy gets it.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (24 Sep 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: It is worth making the point that in terms of the total value of claims that have been adjudicated in this period, the net change in the value of the contract is a small amount of the total claims that have been made by the contractor.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (24 Sep 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: On the standing conciliator, to whom I assume Deputy Kelly is referring-----

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (24 Sep 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: Standing or independent; it is the same point. It is not really a question for the board as to whether it has confidence in that independent adjudicator. Indeed, it has challenged the decisions that were made by the adjudicator recently through the initiation of High Court proceedings. As I said in answer to questions earlier, I expect and support the board to take all the steps it needs...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (24 Sep 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: We need the HSE and the hospitals to ensure that the posts they recruit for are posts that are budgeted. That is the general stance in regard to the funding of posts within our health service, as it is across the rest of government. I will raise the specific hospitals the Deputy mentioned with the Minister for Health.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (24 Sep 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: Deputy Harkin knows I do not know the answer to her question. She knows I do not have the information regarding traffic-calming schemes, no matter how important they are, in every village in the country.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (24 Sep 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: On the general point she raised regarding the need to continue to invest in road safety schemes, the Minister for Transport is committed to doing that, as is the Minister of State, Deputy Lawless. We will continue to ensure that features in the budget.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (24 Sep 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: I have engaged with the Minister of State with responsibility for this area. Neither he nor I played any role in the decision on the bike shed. It was made at official level. I entirely understand and appreciate the anger in regard to it. No Ministers were involved in that particular decision. On our receipt of a report the chairman of the OPW is preparing on this issue, we will look at...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Pension Provisions (23 Jul 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: The Summer Economic Statement (SES) was published in July, following on from the Stability Programme Update earlier this year. It set out the parameters for Budget 2025 and expenditure ceilings out to 2030 which are framed with the need to continue to improve public services and capital infrastructure to support a growing population, and to ensure an expenditure strategy that will help...