Results 7,441-7,460 of 9,994 for speaker:John Gormley

Written Answers — Architectural Heritage: Architectural Heritage (19 Nov 2009)

John Gormley: I propose to take Questions Nos. 151 and 152 together. Delivery of the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (NIAH) project is well advanced with a substantial body of survey work published and accessible on the Buildings of Ireland website at www.buildingsoflireland.ie. Substantive work is underway on 6 surveys around the country. The initial scoping of the NIAH survey for Dublin...

Written Answers — Local Authority Staff: Local Authority Staff (19 Nov 2009)

John Gormley: The numbers of permanent and temporary staff employed by each local authority at the end of June 2008, end of September 2008, end of June 2009, and the end of September 2009, as supplied to my Department by each Local Authority, expressed as whole time equivalents, are shown in the attached table. Under the terms of the Government's decision on implementation of savings in public service, no...

Written Answers — Nuclear Plants: Nuclear Plants (19 Nov 2009)

John Gormley: I refer to the reply to Question No. 276 of 18 November 2009, which outlines the current position on this matter.

Written Answers — Town Boundaries: Town Boundaries (19 Nov 2009)

John Gormley: Midleton Town Council applied for a boundary alteration in 2006. The extent of the change to the boundary sought by the Town Council was opposed by Cork County Council. My Department wrote to Midleton Town Council in December 2007 stating that I considered it inappropriate to proceed with the application for a number of reasons, including the lack of agreement between town and county, the...

Regional Authorities. (24 Nov 2009)

John Gormley: The general function of regional authorities is to review the overall needs and development requirements of their respective regions and facilitate communication and co-operation between local authorities and other public authorities with regard to policies and services being delivered by these bodies. The role of regional authorities under the Planning and Development Act 2000 in drawing up...

Regional Authorities. (24 Nov 2009)

John Gormley: I will answer the last question first. It is our intention to have them. I have always been of the view that we need to have local government at all effective levels.

Regional Authorities. (24 Nov 2009)

John Gormley: The Minister for Transport, Deputy Dempsey, has a view on all these matters. He has been in this role in the past but I am telling the Deputy what the situation is. In other jurisdictions, particularly on the Continent and in the United States, there is representation at local level, in even the smallest towns. That system operates very effectively but in Germany and elsewhere there is...

Regional Authorities. (24 Nov 2009)

John Gormley: -----that we are moving ahead with the Dublin mayoralty, with elections planned in the summer of 2010. We have to look at the system in London where there is also an assembly to which the mayor is answerable.

Regional Authorities. (24 Nov 2009)

John Gormley: That will be set out in the White Paper. The Government is considering all matters. As laid out in the programme for Government, we want to strengthen the strategic role and functions of regional authorities in planning, transport, water and waste management. Regional authorities should reflect the gateways in the national spatial strategy. There should also be democratic leadership in...

Departmental Staff. (24 Nov 2009)

John Gormley: The objective of Government policy on staffing and numbers is to ensure overall staffing levels in the public sector, including local government, are significantly reduced. With the existing recruitment moratorium, three further schemes have been implemented to support this objective: the special incentive career break scheme, the incentivised scheme of early retirement and the shorter...

Departmental Staff. (24 Nov 2009)

John Gormley: I am not aware of any such impact. I am looking at the number of applications approved in the areas affected by floods. In County Clare the number of applications under the special incentive scheme was eight; in Cork county there were 15 and in County Galway, four; therefore, they will not have an impact. The number of approvals under the career break scheme in Cork city was 16. The...

Departmental Staff. (24 Nov 2009)

John Gormley: This was not intended to be a question on floods. I record my thanks to local authority members and the emergency services, particularly the Defence Forces and Civil Defence, all of whom have done an outstanding job in the past few days. Those on the front line include members of the Army which filled 200 sandbags an hour in County Clare and Civil Defence, all of whom are voluntary and not...

Departmental Staff. (24 Nov 2009)

John Gormley: Access to clean drinking water is a priority. The plant on the Lee Road was submerged. It must function again as quickly as possible, which we hope will happen by the end of the week. Resources will be made available to the local authorities.

Urban Renewal Schemes. (24 Nov 2009)

John Gormley: The annual accounts of the Dublin Docklands Development Authority for 2008 have been finalised and arrangements will be made to have them laid before both Houses as soon as possible. The collapse in international financial and property markets in the past year has created serious challenges for the authority. The resulting impairment in the values of its property interests and delays in...

Urban Renewal Schemes. (24 Nov 2009)

John Gormley: No one has had to rely on media reports. Any questions put to me have been answered, including those on the Irish Glass Bottle site, the major issue.

Urban Renewal Schemes. (24 Nov 2009)

John Gormley: I have said there has been a reduction in value of 85%. The authority's accounts are audited by an independent external auditor, KPMG. Under existing legislation, the authority is specifically excluded from being audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General, as are many State and semi-State commercial bodies.

Urban Renewal Schemes. (24 Nov 2009)

John Gormley: Under existing arrangements, it is open to the Joint Committee on the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to have the authority appear before it and thus afford the Oireachtas an opportunity to question it. At the request of Deputy Hogan, the committee asked the authority to appear before it next week. There will be ample opportunity for the Deputy to question it at that point. I...

Urban Renewal Schemes. (24 Nov 2009)

John Gormley: I am saying the opposite - no stone will be left unturned. The new chairman is an extremely competent individual and has expertise in corporate governance. She is going through everything with a fine-tooth comb and has asked outsiders to provide objective analysis. Two reports are pending, one on finance and the other on planning.

Urban Renewal Schemes. (24 Nov 2009)

John Gormley: Of course.

Urban Renewal Schemes. (24 Nov 2009)

John Gormley: The idea is to have as much openness and transparency as possible to ensure the Dublin Docklands Development Authority which the Deputy acknowledges has done good work in regeneration of the area can continue to do this work but in a way that is open, transparent, competent and efficient. That is my aim and it is shared by most Members of the House.