Results 7,861-7,880 of 28,162 for speaker:Catherine Murphy

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Bus Éireann: Discussion (Resumed) (29 Mar 2017)

Catherine Murphy: We all agree that there has been an extraordinary degree of industrial peace given the years of austerity and the punishment people have taken in their take-home pay. It has been said before, but this dispute is not about people seeking a wage increase. It is about people being asked to reduce their take-home income, which is a significant ask of them where they have built up rights over...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Bus Éireann: Discussion (Resumed) (29 Mar 2017)

Catherine Murphy: Some of the routes are not profit-making routes. The Minister knows that. It has already been said. From that perspective, it is not commercial. Transferring them into PSO routes is one mechanism for intervention and provision of resources.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Bus Éireann: Discussion (Resumed) (29 Mar 2017)

Catherine Murphy: At the last meeting the Minister told me that the NTA has a capped amount and, essentially, it would have to stretch it beyond what is possible.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Bus Éireann: Discussion (Resumed) (29 Mar 2017)

Catherine Murphy: I ask the Minister to come back to me on it as a matter of urgency. On the free travel scheme-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Bus Éireann: Discussion (Resumed) (29 Mar 2017)

Catherine Murphy: The free travel scheme is not covering the cost of travel on these commercial routes and often some private carriers are not taking those who hold a free travel pass. We cannot allow this to drift by, for example, doing a report and having the results of the report in six weeks' time. When will the Minister have the results on whether there can be provision under the scheme?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Bus Éireann: Discussion (Resumed) (29 Mar 2017)

Catherine Murphy: That week or two could be another week or two of people on strike and not being paid and the travelling public having to wait. That presumably is an element of what could resolve the dispute.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Bus Éireann: Discussion (Resumed) (29 Mar 2017)

Catherine Murphy: To be perfectly-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Bus Éireann: Discussion (Resumed) (29 Mar 2017)

Catherine Murphy: I will move on. I would like to explore this further but we have very limited time. I believe people are not going to get the fact that this company has been pushed to insolvency. One can very easily envisage a situation of an examiner being obliged to go into a semi-State company. We could end up with a very significant cost on foot of the company becoming insolvent. The settlement of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Bus Éireann: Discussion (Resumed) (29 Mar 2017)

Catherine Murphy: How is the Minister keeping it out of insolvency?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Bus Éireann: Discussion (Resumed) (29 Mar 2017)

Catherine Murphy: Can I just say to the Minister that I remember an old song from when I was a child. It was called "There's a Hole in the Bucket". This is what the situation sounds like; there is a hole in the bucket and no matter what the Minister does he keeps coming back around to same thing again.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Bus Éireann: Discussion (Resumed) (29 Mar 2017)

Catherine Murphy: A lot of the workers will have a future in which they will not be able to pay their mortgages or keep their kids in college. Essentially, they are the ones who are being asked to foot the bill. They are being asked to take an unacceptable reduction in their quality of life and living standards. I do not believe that anybody goes out on strike intentionally. People think about it long and...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 31 - Transport, Tourism and Sport (Revised) (29 Mar 2017)

Catherine Murphy: I have not had an opportunity to come in on this area. I was a little late coming back.

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 31 - Transport, Tourism and Sport (Revised) (29 Mar 2017)

Catherine Murphy: On land transport, unless there are substantial increases there will never be enough money to properly maintain the roads. I have a question on late notification to local authorities. Is there an annual or a multi-annual approach to the funding? One of the situations in which money rolls over from one year to the next is where there is a late notification. Is that how the Department...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 31 - Transport, Tourism and Sport (Revised) (29 Mar 2017)

Catherine Murphy: Was there a delay last year when the Government was not in place in terms of the notification of what their budgets would be?

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 31 - Transport, Tourism and Sport (Revised) (29 Mar 2017)

Catherine Murphy: From my experience of being on a local authority for many years, one constant was that it would not be able to set the budgets until March perhaps and then there was a difficulty if it did not get the money spent by October. There was a difficulty in getting it spent within the allotted timeframe and the uncertainty of the funding was always criticised. I know the funding can fluctuate in...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 31 - Transport, Tourism and Sport (Revised) (29 Mar 2017)

Catherine Murphy: I have a question on the motor tax fund as well. It is collected by what was the Department of the Environment and some of it makes up the local government fund and some of it goes to the Central Exchequer. Am I correct in my understanding of how it operates? How is the amount that goes to the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport determined? How is that decided?

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 31 - Transport, Tourism and Sport (Revised) (29 Mar 2017)

Catherine Murphy: How is it decided what goes where? The motor tax fund is a little over €1 billion. I remember it being €1.1. billion the last time-----

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 31 - Transport, Tourism and Sport (Revised) (29 Mar 2017)

Catherine Murphy: A portion of it is retained by the Department with responsibility for the environment, a portion goes to the Department of Finance and some goes to the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport. How is that decided?

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 31 - Transport, Tourism and Sport (Revised) (29 Mar 2017)

Catherine Murphy: I think we would all wish to be associated with the Minister's remarks about the continuing search efforts being made by a range of agencies and volunteers in the area of the crash. I had not been aware that the Coast Guard is not a statutory agency. I do not know why I did not realise this. If it became a statutory body, would there be financial implications and should we perhaps consider...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 31 - Transport, Tourism and Sport (Revised) (29 Mar 2017)

Catherine Murphy: On the decrease of €2.2 million related to administration costs, would that be a recurring cost or a once-off? The point I am making is: would it have to be made up? There was €6.3 million in capital carry-over. Exactly what was the capital project or was it more than one project? When I look at the budget, it strikes me that we as a country are spending more, or at...