Results 5,101-5,120 of 36,133 for speaker:Pearse Doherty

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Central Bank (Supervision and Enforcement) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (24 Apr 2013)

Pearse Doherty: It is fair to suggest debt collection legislation should fall to be dealt with by the Department of Justice and Equality, but the problem is that it has been thrown about between the two Departments. The matter should fall to the Department of Finance and debt collectors should be regulated like any other financial entity, yet this sector is unregulated and unlicensed. I take it from the...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Central Bank (Supervision and Enforcement) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (24 Apr 2013)

Pearse Doherty: Section 44 allows the courts to issue an order to an individual to stop doing something or to carry out a particular act. Does the order expire once the individual complies with it or after a particular period has elapsed? In other words, if a court orders a person not to engage in a particular transaction, at what point will the order expire?

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Central Bank (Supervision and Enforcement) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (24 Apr 2013)

Pearse Doherty: I saw the three safeguards suggested by the Financial Services Ombudsman and I have an issue with none of them. I do have an issue with setting the number of complaints at three, and even two is inadequate. This legislation has a double lock. One of these is the threshold of three complaints in one year, but the most important is that the Financial Services Ombudsman must decide it is in...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Central Bank (Supervision and Enforcement) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (24 Apr 2013)

Pearse Doherty: Under section 31 there is provision for an individual who does not comply with the appointed person. He is subject to a class A fine of €5,000, which can increase to €250,000. What protection is there to remove a person from a financial institution? If someone is obstructing the work of an appointed person, he or she can be subject to a fine and some of them would be wealthy...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Central Bank (Supervision and Enforcement) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (24 Apr 2013)

Pearse Doherty: What level does the fitness and probity investigation go down to? Would that not be only at very senior level?

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Central Bank (Supervision and Enforcement) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (24 Apr 2013)

Pearse Doherty: Section 43 deals with the protection of whistleblowers and protected disclosures. Understandably, the section allows for the bank to disclose the identity of the person in a number of cases, such as tribunals, without the person's consent. The person should be notified, however, that disclosure of his identity is taking place, not so that there is obstruction but so that consent is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Fiscal Assessment Report 2013: Discussion with Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (24 Apr 2013)

Pearse Doherty: Cuirim fáilte roimh an Irish Fiscal Advisory Council anseo inniu. The members of the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council may not be aware that following the publication of each of their reports I have called on the Government not to accept the main recommendation, in which it calls for more austerity measures. I am glad the Government did not accept its recommendation at that time. I see...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Fiscal Assessment Report 2013: Discussion with Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (24 Apr 2013)

Pearse Doherty: I am well aware of that. May I make this point, and I am open to correction, the advice of the council to Government is to target a 2% deficit by 2015. The council would like the Government to hit that target and to sustain the adjustment which it believes will be 2% in 2015. Is that correct?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Fiscal Assessment Report 2013: Discussion with Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (24 Apr 2013)

Pearse Doherty: Let me put it to Professor McHale, the council has published a report which shows that with the current adjustments, it will reach 2% in 2015.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Fiscal Assessment Report 2013: Discussion with Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (24 Apr 2013)

Pearse Doherty: I understand that, and there is always a risk in making projections but the council has come down on the side that sticking to the adjustment will bring it down to 2%. It is not stated in the report that if the Government is reaching the target in the final year 2014, it could ease off the austerity measures. Professor McHale would want the Government to continue with these measures even if...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Fiscal Assessment Report 2013: Discussion with Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (24 Apr 2013)

Pearse Doherty: Professor McHale acknowledged in the report that there is nothing in it to the effect that the fiscal advisory council believes there should be a 3% target. The projections are that the Government will hit 2% and the council is saying it should stay on target, which can only be read as that the Government should stay on target and hit 2% by 2015. Is the advice to Government that it should...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Fiscal Assessment Report 2013: Discussion with Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (24 Apr 2013)

Pearse Doherty: I welcome that, because from my reading of the report it is clear that the fiscal advisory council's target is 2%. What it is saying to the Government is not to overshoot the 3% target but to come in on it. There are different ways of doing that. The adjustments could have been done closer to the time if there was a belief that it would overshoot. The problem with the approach taken by...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Fiscal Assessment Report 2013: Discussion with Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (24 Apr 2013)

Pearse Doherty: I have a few other questions. There has been much discussion on the flawed way the programme was designed. The head of the IMF mission said it was flawed and that it was the wrong type of programme. Others, including our great leaders in Europe, told us that austerity is not working. They said we had reached breaking point. Ministers have come out with similar statements in recent days....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Fiscal Assessment Report 2013: Discussion with Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (24 Apr 2013)

Pearse Doherty: While the joint committee could spend an entire session on that contribution, I will not do so. I acknowledge the Vice Chairman has being generous with his time. I have two further brief questions. Earlier, Professor McHale mentioned that the council had not factored in the taking on of the promissory notes as sovereign debt over a longer period and the impossibility of so doing. The...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Fiscal Assessment Report 2013: Discussion with Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (24 Apr 2013)

Pearse Doherty: I refer to the Bénétrix-Lane model, which studies the impact of a shock to the system. Does Professor McHale believe this does not apply in respect of the figures they have provided, which show an average multiplier of four over a four-year period?

Written Answers — Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht: Irish Language (25 Apr 2013)

Pearse Doherty: 43. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if he will provide an update as to the progress that has been made as regards the commitment in the 20 years strategy to develop initiatives to encourage writing in Irish by young persons in a range of media, including journalism, blogging, creative writing, drama and film scripts; and the supports that have been provided to...

Written Answers — Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht: Arts Funding (25 Apr 2013)

Pearse Doherty: 19. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if he will publish the report of the Working Group setup to explore fundraising opportunities following on from the commitment given in the Programme for Government; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19365/13]

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Vehicle Registration Tax (25 Apr 2013)

Pearse Doherty: 57. To ask the Minister for Finance the grounds on which a person (details supplied) in County Donegal was fined €1,500 for release of a seized car on 25 February 2011; if those grounds are still valid; and if they have the right to reclaim this money in view of the fact that they were not given due notice. [19558/13]

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Agri-Environment Options Scheme Application Numbers (25 Apr 2013)

Pearse Doherty: 194. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will provide a breakdown per county of the total number of farmers that are awaiting payments under the agri environment option scheme; the reasons for the delay in administering payments; the expected date that the payments will issue; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19684/13]

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Disadvantaged Areas Scheme Application Numbers (25 Apr 2013)

Pearse Doherty: 195. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will provide a breakdown per county of the total number of farmers that are awaiting payments under the disadvantaged area scheme; the reasons for the delay in administering payments; the expected date that the payments will issue; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19685/13]