Results 1,181-1,200 of 1,262 for speaker:Garret Ahearn

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Arts Council Grant Management IT System: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jul 2025)

Garret Ahearn: It is amazing it would happen, though, is it not, with all the controversies in the Arts Council, that someone would potentially do this?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Arts Council Grant Management IT System: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jul 2025)

Garret Ahearn: It would feed into the problems within the Arts Council and senior levels of the Arts Council that things like this would happen. Obviously, we cannot name individuals.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Arts Council Grant Management IT System: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jul 2025)

Garret Ahearn: -----is aware of that could be a data breach from a former employee.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025 (1 Jul 2025)

Garret Ahearn: I welcome the witnesses and thank them for being here. I apologise that I had to leave to go and speak in the Seanad. If I repeat a question, I apologise. When Mr. Smyth was answering Deputy Smith, he talked about the discovery of possible legal issues while putting the heads of the Bill together and that the Department had raised no concerns with the Attorney General, who would make his...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025 (1 Jul 2025)

Garret Ahearn: When the witnesses say that we are trying to put a Bill together that provides a pathway between obligations under the International Court of Justice and our EU legal obligations, is this what they are talking about?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025 (1 Jul 2025)

Garret Ahearn: Mr. Smyth said something earlier about the exact working in the ICJ's ruling but I cannot remember how he phrased it. We have an "obligation" or we are "prohibited". Mr. Smyth used certain words to the effect that it did not mean we must bring in legislation to ban trade in services.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025 (1 Jul 2025)

Garret Ahearn: We prevent it. There are different ways of doing that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025 (1 Jul 2025)

Garret Ahearn: When people say we are not following an ICJ ruling, technically that is not the case, as the Department sees it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025 (1 Jul 2025)

Garret Ahearn: Some states would see themselves-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025 (1 Jul 2025)

Garret Ahearn: It is hard for me to see that. It is really a group of lawyers coming together to ask how they can get around it. However, I know what Mr. Smyth is saying. In his opening contribution, Mr. Keown mentioned a number of times that the Tánaiste was working with his EU colleagues to try to get agreement. A group of Palestinian officials were before the committee a number of weeks ago....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025 (1 Jul 2025)

Garret Ahearn: I have only a few seconds left. I am sorry for interrupting Mr. Keown. In response to Deputy Brennan, he said that countries made contact with Ireland while this process was happening. He mentioned the US. The Deputy asked which countries had made contact but I do not think Mr. Keown named the countries in his response. He said the US under the previous Administration had made contact,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025 (1 Jul 2025)

Garret Ahearn: Is it possible to get the correspondence from the Department with the US? We are surely entitled to that, I would have thought. It would be very interesting to see the pressure the US is putting on certain countries. We can see it when politicians around the world are speaking. There is clear pressure put on by the US. I would be interested to see what sort of pressure would be put on...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Update on Departmental Priorities and Legislation: Department of Culture, Communications and Sport (2 Jul 2025)

Garret Ahearn: I welcome the Minister and Minister of State to the committee. The Minister spoke a number of times about the waste of €7 million of taxpayers' money and trying to account for it and holding people to account. Certainly the Arts Council had a huge role of responsibility in this. In terms of the €7 million, quite a bit of it was spent on two companies in particular, namely,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Update on Departmental Priorities and Legislation: Department of Culture, Communications and Sport (2 Jul 2025)

Garret Ahearn: It seems amazing that the Minister is still not convinced, even with all the conversations with the Arts Council, that this is even the end of it. The council has lost so much credibility that the Minister and the Department are still nervous about saying they are sure. I assume that last week the Minister found out at the same time as the Department the legal bill was double what the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Update on Departmental Priorities and Legislation: Department of Culture, Communications and Sport (2 Jul 2025)

Garret Ahearn: Was the Minister surprised the council did not include the VAT figure?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Update on Departmental Priorities and Legislation: Department of Culture, Communications and Sport (2 Jul 2025)

Garret Ahearn: Does the Minister almost feel he has to drag the information out of the council? A number of colleagues here have spoken about simple accounting things within the Arts Council and you would think that when you were talking about a figure you would include VAT. There is the fact that had to be dragged out of the council representatives to correct the record from two weeks ago and we see all...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Update on Departmental Priorities and Legislation: Department of Culture, Communications and Sport (2 Jul 2025)

Garret Ahearn: A bit like the €140 million.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Update on Departmental Priorities and Legislation: Department of Culture, Communications and Sport (2 Jul 2025)

Garret Ahearn: I have a final question. The Department officials confirmed yesterday they have written to the Data Protection Commission about a significant breach of data. I assume the Minister is aware of it and supports the Department in that. What is his personal view of a breach by a former employee that happened very recently? How serious does he think it is that someone would do this?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Update on Departmental Priorities and Legislation: Department of Culture, Communications and Sport (2 Jul 2025)

Garret Ahearn: I will address my question to the Minister of State as his roles have been defined since the Departments changed. He spoke about female participation in sport. There is probably no better example than Irish soccer over the past number of years. There has been a 27% increase in female participation, largely down to the performance of the women's soccer team in the World Cup in Australia and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025 (1 Jul 2025)

Garret Ahearn: That by doing that, they have met their obligations to the ICJ.