Results 7,421-7,440 of 16,492 for speaker:Ciarán Lynch

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Pre-Budget Submissions: Discussion (Resumed) (16 Jul 2014)

Ciarán Lynch: I have been successful in a number of these cases. The legislation is very clear and it is a forensic examination. The error is on one side of the table or another. It is either that the person has not provided sufficient information for whatever reason - there might be a change in family circumstances, somebody has returned to work and the overpayment has been created - or else the person...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Pre-Budget Submissions: Discussion (Resumed) (16 Jul 2014)

Ciarán Lynch: The appeals process is very clear in that regard. Where it becomes difficult is where the person is arguing that they perhaps did not provide this or that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Pre-Budget Submissions: Discussion (Resumed) (16 Jul 2014)

Ciarán Lynch: I have had those cases of 20 years.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Pre-Budget Submissions: Discussion (Resumed) (16 Jul 2014)

Ciarán Lynch: However, there is no interest applied on that sum. There is no compound effect. If the sum is €15,000, it remains €15,000 for the next 30 or 40 years.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Pre-Budget Submissions: Discussion (Resumed) (16 Jul 2014)

Ciarán Lynch: Thank you. I call Deputy McGrath.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Pre-Budget Submissions: Discussion (Resumed) (16 Jul 2014)

Ciarán Lynch: Deputy Doherty is running out of time.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Pre-Budget Submissions: Discussion (Resumed) (16 Jul 2014)

Ciarán Lynch: In that case I will move on to Deputy O'Donnell.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Pre-Budget Submissions: Discussion (Resumed) (16 Jul 2014)

Ciarán Lynch: We could do with a gender balance.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Pre-Budget Submissions: Discussion (Resumed) (16 Jul 2014)

Ciarán Lynch: Will the Deputy, please, turn his mobile phone off as it is causing interference with the recording system?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Pre-Budget Submissions: Discussion (Resumed) (16 Jul 2014)

Ciarán Lynch: The Deputy should focus on just one commonality, as he does not have time. He has already spoken for four minutes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Pre-Budget Submissions: Discussion (Resumed) (16 Jul 2014)

Ciarán Lynch: The Deputy should put a question, as otherwise, he will run out of time. I want to get to everyone.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Pre-Budget Submissions: Discussion (Resumed) (16 Jul 2014)

Ciarán Lynch: That is the ability to pay argument as opposed to the blanket argument that one should not be paying.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Pre-Budget Submissions: Discussion (Resumed) (16 Jul 2014)

Ciarán Lynch: We will not all agree with the Deputy.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Pre-Budget Submissions: Discussion (Resumed) (16 Jul 2014)

Ciarán Lynch: We will explicitly deal with the matter in the next session because the Housing Agency will be present.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Pre-Budget Submissions: Discussion (Resumed) (16 Jul 2014)

Ciarán Lynch: The Deputy has a couple of minutes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Pre-Budget Submissions: Discussion (Resumed) (16 Jul 2014)

Ciarán Lynch: The Senator's words remind me of the British comedian Frankie Howerd, who always started his routine by saying something strange happened to him on his way to the Palladium or whatever.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Pre-Budget Submissions: Discussion (Resumed) (16 Jul 2014)

Ciarán Lynch: I wish to make an intervention; I will give the Senator back the time. Representatives of Social Justice Ireland appeared before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht when I chaired that committee. We produced a very substantive report on the future of Irish Water. Much of the discussion at that time broke into two areas. There was the universal...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Pre-Budget Submissions: Discussion (Resumed) (16 Jul 2014)

Ciarán Lynch: What prompted me to make the intervention is this. The difficulty with the universal allowance is that although Irish Water will never be privatised - it is in the legislation - it has to operate under a corporate structure.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Pre-Budget Submissions: Discussion (Resumed) (16 Jul 2014)

Ciarán Lynch: The Deputy may disagree. The Deputy's problem is that every time he hears a fact he does not like, he disagrees with it. This is provided for in legislation, unless a government comes in and changes the legislation.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Pre-Budget Submissions: Discussion (Resumed) (16 Jul 2014)

Ciarán Lynch: Irish Water must operate as a corporate entity. It must have books that balance at the end of the year and must comply with the requirements of the regulator. For me to say there is a universal allowance there is akin to saying, "Let's go to Doheny and Nesbitt when we finish here at 5 o'clock and every second pint is free, but the first pint will cost a tenner." This is what happens when...