Results 5,461-5,480 of 9,174 for speaker:Jack Chambers

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 6 - Office of the Chief State Solicitor (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2021)

Jack Chambers: I am joined by my officials. I thank the committee for making time available today to consider my request for a Supplementary Estimate for the Office of the Chief State Solicitor. As members are no doubt aware, the Office of the Chief State Solicitor is a constituent part of the Office of the Attorney General. It provides solicitor services within the Office of the Attorney General and...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 6 - Office of the Chief State Solicitor (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2021)

Jack Chambers: On the Deputy's first question regarding the cost of protected disclosures, I do not have that specific figure in front of me. I can ask the office whether it is even possible to obtain that figure and the specifics around it. If it is, we can send it on to the committee but I will have to engage with the officials to find out if there is a breakdown of that. Different agencies of the...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 6 - Office of the Chief State Solicitor (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2021)

Jack Chambers: I ask the Deputy to bear with me while I get the detail on that. With regard to the staffing of the office generally, we can get a specific note on staffing as it relates to Brexit. One of the predominant issues, as I referenced in reply to Deputy Farrell, when it comes to cost implications for the Chief State Solicitor's office is the multi-annual nature of the work, the interface with the...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 6 - Office of the Chief State Solicitor (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2021)

Jack Chambers: On technology, under subhead A2, there is an emphasis on that and in the Supplementary Estimate. If the Vice Chairman notes the new projects in 2021, he will see a large of portion of the ICT budget has been to facilitate and implement secure remote working access for all staff. That has allowed for a significant level of remote working but also ensured that it is secure. Having additional...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 6 - Office of the Chief State Solicitor (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2021)

Jack Chambers: I am informed by my officials that external IT relates to any of the external consultants. In terms of the internal workings of the ICT budget, as I said it is implementing its own ICT system that, I am informed, is secure.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 6 - Office of the Chief State Solicitor (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2021)

Jack Chambers: As I said, there was positive engagement with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and a substantial increase in the 2022 Revised Estimates to cover general payroll, administration and fees. This was something that was progressed in the Revised Estimates which will be published in December. As I said, there is a staff count of over 300. The increase for next year will have a...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 6 - Office of the Chief State Solicitor (Supplementary) (2 Dec 2021)

Jack Chambers: I am informed that staff have been able to work from home in line with Government regulations. For example, facilities have been set up to allow legal staff access to virtual court hearings in Ireland and the Court of Justice of the European Union. In the initial phase of the pandemic, a lot of public services and people across the private sector had to transition quickly to meet the...

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Challenges facing Women in Sport: Discussion (15 Dec 2021)

Jack Chambers: Gabhaim mo bhuíochas leis an gcoiste as ucht a chuireadh teacht anseo inniu. I thank the committee for the invitation to appear before it to discuss this important topic and for the opportunity to outline some of the actions the Government is taking to address the challenges facing women in sport. The committee has done some important work in facilitating progress in this area. I...

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Challenges facing Women in Sport: Discussion (15 Dec 2021)

Jack Chambers: I thank the Senator. Before I answer his question, I congratulate the Meath ladies. It was fantastic to see a team go from intermediate all the way to senior and winning the All-Ireland. They beat the Dublin ladies, who have had great success in recent years. We will engage in a frank and comprehensive way with the IRFU about the issues that have been raised by the players. They have...

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Challenges facing Women in Sport: Discussion (15 Dec 2021)

Jack Chambers: I will not pre-empt the discussions that we will have with the IRFU, the players and everyone involved. I think the statement should have been more conciliatory. I do not think it was helpful in the context of trying to resolve the issues raised. I will not pre-empt the discussions. We will engage in a robust and frank way with the IRFU to reflect on the issues and to focus on resolving...

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Challenges facing Women in Sport: Discussion (15 Dec 2021)

Jack Chambers: We will engage with the IRFU, as I said.

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Challenges facing Women in Sport: Discussion (15 Dec 2021)

Jack Chambers: We will reflect the issues it has raised. We have involved Sport Ireland in this. It has played an important role in the oversight of Government bodies and the State's interface with all NGBs. As the Senator said, it has experience in dealing with similar issues in other sporting organisations in the past. It will have an important role here too. We are trying to engage properly and...

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Challenges facing Women in Sport: Discussion (15 Dec 2021)

Jack Chambers: I thank the Deputy. The €4 million fund is extremely important. It is research-focused and targeted at trying to bridge the participation gap. That is one element of what we have sought to do regarding women in sport. When it comes to high-performance sport, we have provided substantial funding streams. From that perspective, it is easier to avail of the new sports capital and...

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Challenges facing Women in Sport: Discussion (15 Dec 2021)

Jack Chambers: I fully agree that the one-club model is the future when it comes to the Gaelic games family. We saw certain incidents during the summer around certain teams not being able to use facilities or stadia. That is at the inter-county level but certainly the one-club model is the future. There should be no difference or distinction within any family. There will be much greater participation...

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Challenges facing Women in Sport: Discussion (15 Dec 2021)

Jack Chambers: I share Deputy Mythen's concerns. It would have been better to have had a more conciliatory statement at the outset. We will be engaging properly on the issue relating to women's rugby. We have a list of the breakdown of allocations that we can send to the committee. I have a full breakdown that we will submit to the committee so members will have all the detail on it. The media has a...

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Challenges facing Women in Sport: Discussion (15 Dec 2021)

Jack Chambers: Regarding our new proposals in the sport action plan, we are ambitious about hitting the 40% target. It is a minimum now around progress when it comes to sporting organisations reflecting broader society but also reflecting their grassroots. With Sport Ireland's women in sport lead and the excellent work of the Federation of Irish Sport, and I know the committee will speak to Mary O'Connor...

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Challenges facing Women in Sport: Discussion (15 Dec 2021)

Jack Chambers: That may not have been in the public domain before now but I did.

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Challenges facing Women in Sport: Discussion (15 Dec 2021)

Jack Chambers: I thank Deputy O’Sullivan and I appreciate the comments and his questions as well. On the whole area of participation, we have seen significant progress at grassroots level. This is something that I have seen as someone who has grown up playing and participating in sports when I go down to all of the local clubs now versus when I was playing myself at a younger age. We are seeing...

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Challenges facing Women in Sport: Discussion (15 Dec 2021)

Jack Chambers: I acknowledge Deputy Fitzpatrick's sporting background and his huge involvement over many years in Louth and beyond. He made a very fair point. The facilities are certainly a challenge to female participation. I saw that from engaging with many clubs and those involved in women's sport. To try to respond to that directly, in the assessment process for the sports capital and equipment...