Results 9,601-9,620 of 11,242 for speaker:Noel Dempsey

Departmental Bodies. (10 Feb 2010)

Noel Dempsey: I am not accusing the Deputy of that but saying a certain amount of privacy should be afforded to most people who are not public representatives. A public representative should have a certain amount of privacy also. Although we continually-----

Departmental Bodies. (10 Feb 2010)

Noel Dempsey: -----decide to erode this, that is another question. As I said in my response, the pay cuts applied to the chief executives of non-commercial State companies and agencies within the remit-----

Departmental Bodies. (10 Feb 2010)

Noel Dempsey: They do not at present and that is why the Minister for Finance has decided to have a review of the commercial companies. From 1 September, the pay scale of a chief executive of Dublin Airport Authority has been from €287,413 at the bottom end to €359,320 at the higher level. This is the actual pay rate.

Departmental Bodies. (10 Feb 2010)

Noel Dempsey: That there is a certain set of procedures applicable to the companies that must compete in a commercial way and produce reports in the same way as any private commercial company does not mean there is a conspiracy.

Departmental Bodies. (10 Feb 2010)

Noel Dempsey: The Deputy's implication and tone, which may have been unintentional, indicates he believes there is a big conspiracy, that much taxpayers' money is being wasted-----

Departmental Bodies. (10 Feb 2010)

Noel Dempsey: -----and that nobody is doing anything about it. That is a totally false picture. The only reason the commercial State companies are not within the remit of the Comptroller and Auditor General is they act under company law. They are fully audited and must be audited. They are commercial and there are competition issues.

Departmental Bodies. (10 Feb 2010)

Noel Dempsey: There is no big deal about it from any point of view. The audit report about which the Deputy is talking has been made available publicly, as has the Baker Tilly report on CIE. With regard to the question of prurient interest, Deputy O'Dowd is absolutely correct. I apologise to him if he believes I was saying the salaries of chairpersons or chief executives of State bodies should not be...

Departmental Bodies. (10 Feb 2010)

Noel Dempsey: The National Transport Authority comprises a chairperson, three ex officio members and eight ordinary members. The chairperson and eight ordinary members must be persons who, in the opinion of the Minister for Transport, have wide experience regarding transport, industrial, commercial, financial, land use planning or environmental matters, the organisation of workers or administration. On 1...

Departmental Bodies. (10 Feb 2010)

Noel Dempsey: The Deputy is talking nonsense. He talks about a plethora of Fianna Fáil henchmen and so on.

Departmental Bodies. (10 Feb 2010)

Noel Dempsey: As I said to Deputy Broughan previously, being a member of Fianna Fáil should not preclude one from being appointed to a board. I always approach appointments to a board in an open and transparent manner. I try to find the best people possible and if they happen to be members of Fianna Fáil or Fianna Fáil supporters, I will not exclude them for that reason, no more than I would exclude...

Departmental Bodies. (10 Feb 2010)

Noel Dempsey: I happen to know the political allegiances of some of the people I appoint but I do not know the political allegiances of the vast majority of the people I appointed. In this case the Deputy should recall that I invited people to nominate themselves if they had an interest in this and I selected the people from the list of those who applied. I will examine that list again before I fill the...

Departmental Bodies. (10 Feb 2010)

Noel Dempsey: Regarding the directly elected mayor of Dublin and the role he or she might play in respect of transport, as I told the Deputy previously, my colleague, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy John Gormley, and myself are working together on the directly elected mayor Bill to ensure he or she has a meaningful role in the Dublin region in respect of transport...

Departmental Bodies. (10 Feb 2010)

Noel Dempsey: No. There will not be two chairs. There will be a national chair and a Dublin transport council-----

Departmental Bodies. (10 Feb 2010)

Noel Dempsey: Deputy-----

Departmental Bodies. (10 Feb 2010)

Noel Dempsey: The Deputy is not showing much faith in the democratic process by which the directly elected mayor will be elected rather than appointed by anybody. He or she will have very strong powers and will be able to head up regional authorities. We must wait and see what happens. On the taxi regulator, the taxi regulator will be subsumed into the National Transport Authority. Obviously,...

Departmental Bodies. (10 Feb 2010)

Noel Dempsey: I love the way the Deputy would consider political people appointing people to a board as being more acceptable than-----

Departmental Bodies. (10 Feb 2010)

Noel Dempsey: This is a transparent and open process, and people see it. I am answerable in the House for it. This board answers to me and I need a board that I can trust and that will not play politics one way or the other. That is why I pick as many people as I possibly can who I can trust to do the job on the board. Any of these people will stand up to scrutiny, regardless of whether they are...

Road Network. (10 Feb 2010)

Noel Dempsey: I refer the Deputy to my answer to priority Question No. 73 taken earlier.

Road Network. (10 Feb 2010)

Noel Dempsey: We have had this political discussion on many occasions. There is a gap of about €25 billion between what we are taking in and what we are spending. Everybody on all sides of the House agreed that cuts had to be made. There is no programme of Government that can be exempt from cuts in the current circumstances. We cannot have it both ways. The Deputies opposite cannot attack the...

Road Network. (10 Feb 2010)

Noel Dempsey: The latest role Deputy Broughan has for me is as a mechanic. There is no end to this man. The NRA's role is to administer the funding for local authorities for regional and local road networks. This role used to be fulfilled internally in the Department until recently. The same staff will be involved but this time they will be in the NRA. The NRA will also be able to add its expertise to...