Results 11,921-11,940 of 32,924 for speaker:Paschal Donohoe

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Capital Expenditure Programme Review (18 Jan 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: With regard to the timeline, the key framework for all of this is the national planning framework. Public consultation on the national planning framework finished in recent weeks. An additional number of submissions were received by the Minister, Deputy Murphy, which he is now considering. When that work is done it will allow me to conclude where we are with our ten-year capital plan. ...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Capital Expenditure Programme Review (18 Jan 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: The Minister for Health has submitted a view regarding the total number of beds needed in the coming period. He has put forth his views on many costs in respect of the health service, which include beds but also deal with our position from the perspective of primary care centres and our needs - for example, how we fund a new national maternity hospital. I have an array of different health...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Private Partnerships (18 Jan 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: Public private partnerships are subject to the same robust and rigorous project appraisal process as traditionally procured projects.  In ensuring that Departments obtain the best value for money from public capital investment, PPPs, just like traditionally procured projects, are subject to the requirements contained in the public spending code. The public...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Private Partnerships (18 Jan 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: The answer to the Deputy's question varies by project. I believe private financing can play an important role in allowing important public projects to go ahead. The example I would give to the Deputy is the recent loan made by the European Investment Bank to allow us to move ahead with the new national children's hospital which is under construction. We have public private partnerships all...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Private Partnerships (18 Jan 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: Public private partnerships have served us well in delivering many projects, either more cost-effectively than we would have been able to do them in the past, or indeed projects that we would not have been able to make happen at all in the past. I believe private financing and the role of public private partnerships generally in the future will continue to be of great help to us in making...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Bullying in the Workplace (18 Jan 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: The Civil Service is committed to protecting dignity and respect across all organisations.  The current policy for dealing with complaints of bullying or harassment is, as the Deputy has said, Dignity at Work, which was revised and published in 2015. The policy aims to promote respect, dignity, safety and equality in the workplace.  My Department developed the policy in conjunction...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Bullying in the Workplace (18 Jan 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: In my Department responsibility for this issue lies within the human resources section which works closely with the public service reform unit of my Department. On whether there is consistent implementation of the policy across the Civil Service, I am satisfied that it is applied. It is a matter I have reviewed with staff in my Department and we believe the policy is applied broadly and...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Bullying in the Workplace (18 Jan 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: No part of the Civil Service or any semi-State body has been identified to me as having a higher incidence than the average figure or the norm. Any case that is proved does not reflect well on our work in ensuring there is dignity in the workplace. As I said, one case is one too many. My Department and I want to ensure anybody who comes to work in the Civil Service or elsewhere is treated...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Brexit Issues (18 Jan 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: As the Deputy will be aware, the Government is adopting a whole of Government approach to the challenges posed by Brexit. Our objectives are to minimise the impact of Brexit on trade and the economy, to protect the Northern Ireland peace process, to maintain the common travel area and to influence the future direction of the European Union. Brexit issues in my Department are co-ordinated...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Brexit Issues (18 Jan 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: On the availability of funds, only last weekend I saw advertising from Enterprise Ireland encouraging SMEs to access the Agile Innovation fund. This fund is designed to support SMEs make the necessary changes to get ready for Brexit. I emphasise that the responsibility for making those changes sits first with those who run and own these companies. We will do as much as we can but I am...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Brexit Issues (18 Jan 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: I was just trying to maintain eye contact with the Deputy but I will look up at the sky in the future.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Brexit Issues (18 Jan 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: In terms of the Deputy's observations, if we were not advertising the funding, he would accuse us of not doing anything and of not making potential customers aware of a fund we have set up. Therefore, we did that. On helping people access funds, Enterprise Ireland is trying to make it as simple and as clear as possible for people to access the funding. I am aware that there are...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Pay (18 Jan 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: The Public Service Stability Agreement 2018-2020 provided that an examination of remaining salary scale issues in respect of post-January 2011 recruits at entry levels would be undertaken within 12 months of the commencement of the agreement. Additionally, as the Deputy is aware, he proposed, and this Government accepted, an amendment to section 11 of the Public Service Pay and Pensions Act...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Pay (18 Jan 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: I will not be engaging directly with the unions on the matter. It is the work of my Department and the industrial relations sections of other Departments to deal with them and they will continue to do so. The work of the Irish Government Economic and Evaluation Service will be, as the Deputy said, to respond and provide the information on the cost and consequences of the measure and to...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Capital Expenditure Programme (18 Jan 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the Deputy for his question. I recognise his ongoing commitment to dealing with this issue, the work he has done in the Oireachtas and the parliamentary party to draw attention to the issue of housing supply and point to the terrible social costs experienced by people who are under pressure in their accommodation or in not being able to find accommodation. I am aware that he wants...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Capital Expenditure Programme (18 Jan 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: You can never recover a childhood. Families with young children are living in hotel accommodation. They include children who are attending primary and secondary school. Our commitment to give them the housing and accommodation they need is genuine. That is the reason we made additional funds available towards the end of 2017 to tackle this and other matters. The Deputy made reference...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Service Pay Commission (18 Jan 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: In devising a strategy to address recruitment and retention issues in the public service the Deputy will be aware that the Government approved the terms of reference for the second phase of work of the Public Service Pay Commission to address identified recruitment and retention issues in the public service. Provision for this process was included in the public service stability agreement...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Service Pay Commission (18 Jan 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: In regard to the Deputy's first question, I do not agree there is a crisis in recruitment or retention within schools. We are hiring more teachers and we are lucky with the quality of both the graduates who have come through and those who are qualifying from the teaching colleges who are coming into the schools. The Minister for Education and Skills has acknowledged that in a number of...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Service Pay Commission (18 Jan 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: I was responding to the Deputy's question, particularly in regard to education. I never said there were not any difficulties. There are difficulties. Where I differ is that we will respond to the difficulties. The Minister for Education and Skills has stated we already do that. We must view the difficulties that we are referring to against the background of two developments. The first...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Expenditure (18 Jan 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: The effective management of the delivery of public services within budgetary allocations is a key responsibility for each Minister and their Department on an ongoing basis. My Department is in regular contact during the year with all other Departments and offices to ensure that expenditure is being managed within the overall budgetary parameters. Information in regard to gross and net voted...