Results 5,441-5,460 of 10,581 for speaker:Patrick O'Donovan

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Sport in Ireland - Challenges, Strategies and Governance: Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport (1 Feb 2017)

Patrick O'Donovan: I thank the committee for the invitation. I was a member of this committee in the last Dáil and I am delighted to be here to address some of the questions. The board of Sport Ireland approved the grant of €520,000 for the Olympic Council of Ireland for administration and programme spending in 2016. Some €390,000 of this was paid to the OCI in 2016. The balance was not...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Sport in Ireland - Challenges, Strategies and Governance: Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport (1 Feb 2017)

Patrick O'Donovan: The assessment manual is under way at the moment. Our officials in Killarney have spent much time on this. Last June or July we started looking at a 2016-2017 programme. We wanted to change the criteria to make it, as the Minister, Deputy Ross, said, as easy as possible for people in terms of the qualifications. Mindful of that, we have decided that in advance of the closing date the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Sport in Ireland - Challenges, Strategies and Governance: Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport (1 Feb 2017)

Patrick O'Donovan: The Minister, Deputy Ross, will answer the second question. I have requested a meeting with Dr. Wu based on Ireland's experience in the Olympic Games. I have done so in response to commentary in the media and my own interest in it. As somebody who has a passing interest in boxing, I was left in no doubt that there were serious questions to ask from an Irish point of view in the aftermath...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Sport in Ireland - Challenges, Strategies and Governance: Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport (1 Feb 2017)

Patrick O'Donovan: If it would be helpful, I have no problem with coming back before the committee on another day. The Minister, Deputy Ross, has the Bus Éireann issue to deal with but if it would be helpful, I could come back in on another day.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Sport in Ireland - Challenges, Strategies and Governance: Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport (1 Feb 2017)

Patrick O'Donovan: To take the last point first, it is very important that the Olympic Council of Ireland presidency election be as open and accountable as possible. I wish the contenders well. No more than is the case for the people who come into these Houses, it is not easy to put one's name on a ballot paper. I welcome the fact that the election will be held in an open forum. On the amounts yet to be...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Sport in Ireland - Challenges, Strategies and Governance: Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport (1 Feb 2017)

Patrick O'Donovan: I am trying to give the Deputy detailed answers.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Sport in Ireland - Challenges, Strategies and Governance: Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport (1 Feb 2017)

Patrick O'Donovan: The Deputy is asking detailed questions.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Sport in Ireland - Challenges, Strategies and Governance: Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport (1 Feb 2017)

Patrick O'Donovan: That is exactly what will happen. I would encourage the Deputy not to believe everything he reads in the newspapers.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Sport in Ireland - Challenges, Strategies and Governance: Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport (1 Feb 2017)

Patrick O'Donovan: I can tell the Deputy what will happen. He asked me a question and I would like him to afford me the opportunity to answer it because it is a loaded question. The Deputy is making an insinuation that either myself or the Minister, Deputy Ross, would not treat this matter with the utmost seriousness. I take that very seriously. We are taking this matter very seriously. That is why we...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Sport in Ireland - Challenges, Strategies and Governance: Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport (1 Feb 2017)

Patrick O'Donovan: The Deputy has confused a couple of issues. The first issue, the timeframe on governance, has been set out and all of the national governing bodies are fine with it. They know that they must move from a voluntary to a mandatory code of governance and this is being done to protect them as much as to protect taxpayers. When I was a member of the Committee of Public Accounts, governance was...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Sport in Ireland - Challenges, Strategies and Governance: Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport (1 Feb 2017)

Patrick O'Donovan: I do not know whether Deputy O'Keeffe is familiar with the aftermath of the discussion. The job of a Minister is to initiate debate and discussion and lead policy formation. It is doubtful whether the tried and tested route of placing an advertisement on the Department's website or on the back page of a broadsheet newspaper would have resulted in a national debate on this issue. We have a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Sport in Ireland - Challenges, Strategies and Governance: Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport (1 Feb 2017)

Patrick O'Donovan: On the governance issue Deputy Munster raised, we decided to go with a mandatory basis for national governing bodies, as much to protect them as everybody else. Sport Ireland is the statutory agency with which the national governing bodies liaise and it is from Sport Ireland that they derive their funding. Under the Sport Ireland Act, once a policy statement is made by the Government on...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Sport in Ireland - Challenges, Strategies and Governance: Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport (1 Feb 2017)

Patrick O'Donovan: Yes. Sport Ireland is already in charge, as it were, because it is a statutory agency established by the Oireachtas. It is a combination of the old Irish Sports Council and the National Sports Campus Development Authority. It has power in terms of how funds are distributed and it can also distribute funds according to policy decisions of the Government. The policy decision in this case is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Sport in Ireland - Challenges, Strategies and Governance: Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport (1 Feb 2017)

Patrick O'Donovan: Deputy Munster asked about the sports capital grant workshops in County Louth. Not every county will have a workshop. We have limited resources and a very small unit in Killarney. I encourage the Opposition spokespersons to go to the Department's office in Killarney and to see the work of the sports capital programme because we have a very small staff. They do not have the resources....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Sport in Ireland - Challenges, Strategies and Governance: Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport (1 Feb 2017)

Patrick O'Donovan: I just got a flashback. Along with the Chairman, I was a member of the previous committee, of which Senator O'Mahony was Chairman. We attempted to do that and were blocked by our own members.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Sport in Ireland - Challenges, Strategies and Governance: Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport (1 Feb 2017)

Patrick O'Donovan: Some of the members might want to forget it now but that was actually blocked by the committee.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Sport in Ireland - Challenges, Strategies and Governance: Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport (1 Feb 2017)

Patrick O'Donovan: I do not disagree with anything the Deputy has said. In fact, I could not have put it better myself. In return for State investment in anything, there must be probity and public accountability. This committee has a very important role in that - both in holding the Department to account in terms of how we spend and allocate our money, and how sporting organisations allocate and use it on...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Sport in Ireland - Challenges, Strategies and Governance: Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport (1 Feb 2017)

Patrick O'Donovan: The simple answer is "Yes". The local authority swimming pool programme "does what it says on the tin", but it requires local authority involvement from the start. I know about the issues in the Deputy's constituency of Kildare North; we have these problems all over the country. The amount of money available from the Department in a capital grant goes nowhere near the final cost of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Sport in Ireland - Challenges, Strategies and Governance: Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport (1 Feb 2017)

Patrick O'Donovan: I would gladly attend another meeting. It is not a problem.

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Tourism Funding (2 Feb 2017)

Patrick O'Donovan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 325 and 344 together. The Department of Education and Skills has overall lead responsibility for skills development policy generally across all sectors, including hospitality and tourism, and oversees the bulk of training provided nationally, channelling funding through SOLAS for further education and through the Higher Education Authority (HEA) for...