Results 11,081-11,100 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Committee on Transport and Communications: Select Sub-Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: State Airports (Shannon Group) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (3 Jul 2014)

Leo Varadkar: The €100 million limit was the limit sought by the board. It got the figure it wanted. There were initial concerns from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and other places that a borrowing limit of €100 million was too high.

Committee on Transport and Communications: Select Sub-Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: State Airports (Shannon Group) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (3 Jul 2014)

Leo Varadkar: Yes. Obviously, its job is to protect the public purse so it was doing its job in that regard. At Cabinet sub-committee level, we agreed to a limit of €100 million with which everyone was satisfied, including Shannon. It is not unusual for major borrowings to have to get consent from both the parent Department and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. Even something as...

Committee on Transport and Communications: Select Sub-Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: State Airports (Shannon Group) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (3 Jul 2014)

Leo Varadkar: I did take a look at the issue after Deputy Dooley raised it on Second Stage and asked for a submission from my officials about it. The matter had been raised and examined by other Ministers in the past, most extensively by Mr. Noel Dempsey who also sought the advice of the then Attorney General. The conclusion they came to was that the people concerned ceased to be civil servants when they...

Committee on Transport and Communications: Select Sub-Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: State Airports (Shannon Group) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (3 Jul 2014)

Leo Varadkar: As far as I recall, it will be a fixed-term contract of five or seven years that can be renewed once.

Committee on Transport and Communications: Select Sub-Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: State Airports (Shannon Group) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (3 Jul 2014)

Leo Varadkar: Yes. That is generally the case. If one keeps rolling over fixed-term contracts, they can become contracts of indefinite duration. I will double-check that and let the Deputy know if I am incorrect.

Committee on Transport and Communications: Select Sub-Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: State Airports (Shannon Group) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (3 Jul 2014)

Leo Varadkar: For clarity, we are not ruling out the potential separation of Cork Airport and its also becoming an independent airport. What we are doing now is dissolving the Cork Airport Authority plc as it stands but retaining the provision to re-establish it should the conditions for re-establishment of it as an independent entity be right. Currently, the conditions are not right because of the large...

Committee on Transport and Communications: Select Sub-Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: State Airports (Shannon Group) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (3 Jul 2014)

Leo Varadkar: Yes, the management structure has changed such that Cork Airport runs its own show and the CEO of Cork Airport reports directly to the top man in DAA. In the past, the CEO had to report to middle management within the company.

Committee on Transport and Communications: Select Sub-Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: State Airports (Shannon Group) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (3 Jul 2014)

Leo Varadkar: It does not get a budget but it does have its own accounts.

Committee on Transport and Communications: Select Sub-Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: State Airports (Shannon Group) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (3 Jul 2014)

Leo Varadkar: I am not sure what the Deputy means by its own budget.

Committee on Transport and Communications: Select Sub-Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: State Airports (Shannon Group) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (3 Jul 2014)

Leo Varadkar: Management and budgetary issues are matters for the board. They are not matters in which I get involved directly.

Committee on Transport and Communications: Select Sub-Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: State Airports (Shannon Group) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (3 Jul 2014)

Leo Varadkar: During my meetings with management in Cork I saw its financials, budgets and projections in terms of airport and commercial revenues, expenditure and so on and its projected losses factoring in the interest on the debt. In that sense, it has a budget. However, it does not file separate accounts.

Committee on Transport and Communications: Select Sub-Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: State Airports (Shannon Group) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (3 Jul 2014)

Leo Varadkar: It is absolutely a separate business unit.

Committee on Transport and Communications: Select Sub-Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: State Airports (Shannon Group) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (3 Jul 2014)

Leo Varadkar: For clarity, the legislative provisions to allow Cork Airport to become a separate airport are provided for in the State Airports Act 2004, which are not being repealed and do not require to be reiterated in this legislation.

Committee on Transport and Communications: Select Sub-Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: State Airports (Shannon Group) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (3 Jul 2014)

Leo Varadkar: I would have been interested to hear the Deputy's suggestions. Incidentally, there were some nice suggestions.

Committee on Transport and Communications: Select Sub-Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: State Airports (Shannon Group) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (3 Jul 2014)

Leo Varadkar: The reason for the change in name is exactly what the Deputy outlined. DAA is not just Dublin. It includes Cork and has business internationally. It is not just about airports; it has a consulting arm and a retail arm as well. It is not an authority but a company. The original intention was either to return to the old name, Aer Rianta, or to rename it by giving it a new name. When that...

Committee on Transport and Communications: Select Sub-Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: State Airports (Shannon Group) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (3 Jul 2014)

Leo Varadkar: This section is consequential on the previous ones. It is the same issue.

Committee on Transport and Communications: Select Sub-Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: State Airports (Shannon Group) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (3 Jul 2014)

Leo Varadkar: I wish to point out that there is an incorrect reference in subsection(2)(b) in this section. The correct reference is section 22(4) of the 2004 Act. I am giving the committee notice that I will table an amendment on Report Stage to correct that technical error.

Committee on Transport and Communications: Select Sub-Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: State Airports (Shannon Group) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (3 Jul 2014)

Leo Varadkar: I move amendment No. 3: In page 26, between lines 19 and 20, to insert the following:“Amendment to superannuation schemes 34. (1) Section 32 (as amended by paragraph 16 of the Schedule to the Act of 2004) of the Act of 1998 is substituted by the following:“Superannuation schemes 32. (1) A company may prepare and submit to the Minister a scheme or schemes for the granting or...

Committee on Transport and Communications: Select Sub-Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: State Airports (Shannon Group) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (3 Jul 2014)

Leo Varadkar: I am inserting a new section. It is correct that those provisions did not provide for the consent of employees, but I remind Deputies that in the scenario we were discussing - a possible forced wind-up of the scheme by the Pensions Authority - employee consent would also not have been appropriate at that point. In any event, the provisions contained in subsections (3) to (10) of section...

Committee on Transport and Communications: Select Sub-Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: State Airports (Shannon Group) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (3 Jul 2014)

Leo Varadkar: I will comment on a few issues which perhaps I did not cover fully in my initial remarks. The section allows people who are already paying into the scheme to cease doing so, if they so wish. This is a real issue for people. After the Dublin-Laois match a couple of weeks ago, I met a man from Swords, probably a constituent of Deputy Daly, whose major concern is that he has to pay a couple...