Results 5,101-5,120 of 6,653 for speaker:Rose Conway-Walsh

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Legislative Programme (1 Feb 2024)

Rose Conway-Walsh: 213. To ask the Minister for Finance if he will provide an update on the legislative programme. [3495/24]

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (31 Jan 2024)

Rose Conway-Walsh: I know what the Minister of State is saying but we have to increase the pool. I want to ask him about the 330 leases that we paid €106 million for in rent last year. Is there a plan or strategy in place to reduce the reliance on leased properties? Is it an explicit aim of the OPW to move away from leasing, which is recognised as the most expensive option?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement: All-Ireland Economy: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Feb 2024)

Rose Conway-Walsh: I thank InterTradeIreland for being here today. It is very timely that the witnesses are here because of what is happening in the North and the restoration of the Executive. I thank them for all the work they have done in spite of what they have been up against in terms of the North-South ministerial bodies and the lack of meetings and everything else. They have still managed to do an...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement: All-Ireland Economy: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Feb 2024)

Rose Conway-Walsh: There would be an absolute intolerance to any impediment to the development of business. When we consider that businesses have had to come through a global pandemic and everything else on top of it, I cannot see that any business, North or South, would accept impediments being put in its way. My next question is about the possibility of collaboration between the local enterprise offices,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement: All-Ireland Economy: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Feb 2024)

Rose Conway-Walsh: This is where we come to human capital. One of the biggest challenges for business is being able to get the labour that is necessary. A significant development here is the Higher Education Authority, HEA, legislation, under which each of the higher education institutions, HEIs, is tasked explicitly with increasing the number of places in the South for students from the North. The same is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement: All-Ireland Economy: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Feb 2024)

Rose Conway-Walsh: Very good research is done in the Centre for Advanced Sustainable Energy, CASE, at Queen's University. We are familiar with that and have had presentations to the committee around it and what can be done on individual farms and clusters. There is a great interest throughout the island in what is being done in that regard. It is about that exchange of learning and not reinventing the wheel...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: National Development Plan (8 Feb 2024)

Rose Conway-Walsh: 84. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform how the finding of the recently published ESRI report, The National Development Plan in 2023: Priorities and Capacity, will shape the review of NDP ceilings; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5760/24]

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: National Development Plan (8 Feb 2024)

Rose Conway-Walsh: Will the Minister outline the procedure involved in ensuring that the findings of the recently published Economic and Social Research Council, ESRI, report, The National Development Plan in 2023: Priorities and Capacity, will be incorporated and ultimately change the current NDP ceilings so we know we are investing enough in housing and making sure that the construction activity is directed...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: National Development Plan (8 Feb 2024)

Rose Conway-Walsh: That is an answer but it does not answer my questions. The ESRI report was with the Minister's Department before the budget last year and an early draft was with the Department as early as June last year. This report makes it clear that there is need to increase housing targets. Sinn Féin has spent the last four years warning that housing targets were too low. Finally the expertise...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: National Development Plan (8 Feb 2024)

Rose Conway-Walsh: When it comes to the State building social and affordable homes it is very clear now that the targets for 2023 are not going to be met in counties like Mayo. Indeed not a single house was delivered in Mayo in the first nine months of 2023. Another crucial finding of the ESRI report is about the workforce and the need and potential use of the taxation system to redirect construction work....

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (8 Feb 2024)

Rose Conway-Walsh: 86. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he has engaged with the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General on the potential of extending its remit to cover commercial public bodies in a dual audit capacity to ensure greater oversight and accountability; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5766/24]

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (8 Feb 2024)

Rose Conway-Walsh: Has the Minister engaged with the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General on the potential of the State auditor to cover semi-State bodies that receive public money but engage in commercial activity? I refer to a dual audit capacity. The public would be surprised that the Government does not require this already. Will the Minister consider changing the State auditor's remit to ensure...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (8 Feb 2024)

Rose Conway-Walsh: I really think it is time the Government looked at this collectively rather than waiting for individual Ministers. The Minister gave the usual reason of commercial operations and private auditors, but there seems to be an inconsistent approach to when public oversight is used. Just across the road, more than 50% of Trinity College's revenue is not from the State, yet every year the books...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (8 Feb 2024)

Rose Conway-Walsh: I referenced those organisations to highlight the inconsistency of approach. The outrageous scandal in RTÉ brought this to the public's attention. How do we know there are not any other RTÉs? A small commercial operation is used to hide from public accountability. The current system, whereby oversight is conducted by the board of RTÉ by commissioning the audit of accounts,...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (8 Feb 2024)

Rose Conway-Walsh: Anglo Irish Bank and Carillion.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Flood Relief Schemes (8 Feb 2024)

Rose Conway-Walsh: 90. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform to provide an update on the Crossmolina flood relief scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5763/24]

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Flood Relief Schemes (8 Feb 2024)

Rose Conway-Walsh: As the Department of expenditure is the planning authority for flood relief schemes, the OPW issued that Department with a report that addressed the supplementary information it required. The OPW is still awaiting a response from the Department. Will the Minister please tell the people of Crossmolina when its scheme will start? He will know this has been going on since 2015.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Flood Relief Schemes (8 Feb 2024)

Rose Conway-Walsh: That is the crux of the problem. When is the Minister expecting information from the consultants to which the Department has given supplementary information for them to assess whether it is sufficient and significant? Will he assure me at this stage that we will not need to go to a third public consultation process once the Department responds to the information given last November? That...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Flood Relief Schemes (8 Feb 2024)

Rose Conway-Walsh: I thank the Minister. I think people would ask that he does absolutely everything in his power to ensure that the sign-off time for the phase the project is currently at be cut as short as possible. The Minister can get it through to the consultants that this is an absolute priority scheme. He is right about Deputies Calleary and Dillon. There has been cross-party support and concern in...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: National Development Plan (8 Feb 2024)

Rose Conway-Walsh: 94. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he plans to bring forward a revised national development plan departmental ceilings in order to account for the inflation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5764/24]