Results 13,441-13,460 of 32,960 for speaker:Paschal Donohoe

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Service Pay Commission (17 May 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: The Public Service Stability Agreement 2018-2020 provides for €887 million in additional pay restoration and increases. The agreement makes clear that the responsibilities that are upon me are to set up the public service pay commission, which was set up before the agreement - I did that - and to support the pay commission in submitting a report to Government during the second...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Service Pay Commission (17 May 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: I will not comment on any potential agreement or disagreement. We have an agreement that is laid out in text and the Government and I are honouring everything laid out in it. Work is under way on the issue of new entrant pay and I have updated the House on some key points in that regard. The Public Service Pay Commission is engaged on the issue in the context of recruitment and retention...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Budget Measures (17 May 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: The ongoing work on equality budgeting in Ireland follows the commitment in A Programme for a Partnership Government to "develop the process of budget and policy proofing as a means of advancing equality, reducing poverty and strengthening economic and social rights". Following this programme for Government commitment and in order to facilitate a more comprehensive assessment of the impact...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Budget Measures (17 May 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: Responsibility for matters related to how we support citizens with a disability lies with the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Finian McGrath, who regularly challenges all Departments, including my own, to look at how we can meet their needs. As to how we are seeking to advance the broad equality budgeting agenda, my Department is engaging with the Irish Human Rights and...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Budget Measures (17 May 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: I am committed to increasing resources to deal with such issues. I have engaged with the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, on this area in two successive budgets. The issues of detail the Deputy raises are, however, matters for the Minister of Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy. I will contact him to see if I can get answers to the issues raised by the Deputy.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: National Development Plan (17 May 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: The figure the Deputy mentioned is not correct. For the latter half of the plan, the assumption underpinning the national development plan is 2% growth per year. We deliberately reduced our growth forecast for the second half of the ten-year plan in recognition of the fact that it was more difficult to forecast that far ahead into the future in view of the many risks, of which the Deputy is...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: National Development Plan (17 May 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: The Deputy referred to a growth rate of 4%. When we are considering growth rates in the economy so far into the future, we strip out the impact of inflation. The trend growth rate we have used for the second half of the plan is 2%.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: National Development Plan (17 May 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: The Deputy further asked whether we had been cognisant of the Copenhagen papers and how we had taken account of Brexit. I will make two points in that regard. The best response we can put in place to the period of uncertainty the economy could enter if the Brexit process becomes even more difficult is to increase capital investment across the period. That is what we are doing. We are...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: National Development Plan (17 May 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: That is all contained in the Project Ireland 2040 strategy and the associated documents that were published. They lay out how we believe the plan is affordable. With regard to having a safety net, the best response in entering a period in which the economy could face further uncertainty is to make use of the levers we can fully influence. Increasing investment in higher and further...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Reform Implementation (17 May 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: In December 2017 last I launched Our Public Service 2020, the new framework for development and innovation in the public service. The new reform framework focuses on supporting sustainable, continuous progress across the public service. Our Public Service 2020 has three priority pillars: delivering for the public, innovating for our future and developing people and organisations. There...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Reform Implementation (17 May 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: The Deputy is wrong on that. We are increasing resources for local authorities to ensure public housing commitments can be delivered upon. We expect local authorities to deliver on housing targets with the resources that have been made available to them. The Deputy referred to Tipperary, which he knows far better than I do. If I look to progress made in Dublin, I note that only...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Reform Implementation (17 May 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: We have had a very significant development that Deputy Mattie McGrath has confirmed and acknowledged, namely, that we have increased resources for housing.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Reform Implementation (17 May 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: It is great to see that acknowledgement here today.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Reform Implementation (17 May 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: When I was in Tipperary, I met the local authority representatives that afternoon. It was at the end of a very positive day.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Reform Implementation (17 May 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: I could see many different businesses and people who were involved in-----

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Reform Implementation (17 May 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: -----the community and economy in Tipperary. They were pointing to the progress that is being made. When I met the chief executive of the local authority, he pointed to the fact that not enough housing had been delivered, as the Deputy rightly said. He also took me through the plans funded by the Government to increase local housing supply, however. We want to and will ensure local...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Climate Change Adaptation Plans (17 May 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: My Department's role is broadly to deliver well-managed and well-targeted public spending. When it comes to climate change, this means ensuring we respond in the best way to climate transition in our country. EU countries have agreed on a 2030 framework for climate and energy, including new EU-wide targets and policy objectives for the period 2021 to 2030. These targets will be...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Climate Change Adaptation Plans (17 May 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: I see this as a major opportunity. I want the Irish people and Government to play a role in responding. The Deputy can always point, very legitimately, to areas in which we could make improvements and operate differently, but alongside that, let us recognise what is contained in Ireland 2040, the national development plan. There is a commitment to retrofitting 45,000 homes each year and...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Climate Change Adaptation Plans (17 May 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: The National Transport Authority indicated to me that with the further development of the bus network, for example, there is funding available.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Climate Change Adaptation Plans (17 May 2018)

Paschal Donohoe: I am not aware of what it said about cycling infrastructure but I take the Deputy's comments in good faith. I want to see our cycling infrastructure improve beyond where it is. I look at plans under way for the new greenway linking the north inner city, for example, to Castleknock and beyond as an example of the kind of investment now happening that the Green Party has sought for so long....