Results 1,461-1,480 of 3,444 for speaker:Shane Cassells

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 1 - President's Establishment (25 Sep 2018)

Shane Cassells: When I use the word "demand", I mean an official request.

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 1 - President's Establishment (25 Sep 2018)

Shane Cassells: I am trying to extrapolate something. There is €4.6 million being spent on the President's Establishment by other Departments and it is not coming from its Vote. In order to examine it, we would have to spend days in having the individual Accounting Officers come and asking them what they are doing in terms of spending on the President's Establishment. By the way, if they are...

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 1 - President's Establishment (25 Sep 2018)

Shane Cassells: Okay, we do not know. That goes to the root of the issue in this interaction. Moneys are being spent on the President's Establishment that do not come within the remit of the supposed Accounting Officer but cumulatively the cost is very big. As Deputy Bobby Aylward said, they give a proper and true reflection of the cost of the Office of the President. Perhaps I might ask the Comptroller...

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 1 - President's Establishment (25 Sep 2018)

Shane Cassells: Would the Office of the President alert the Accounting Officer to the need for additional expenditure by the Department in certain areas to cover its costs?

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 1 - President's Establishment (25 Sep 2018)

Shane Cassells: Okay.

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 1 - President's Establishment (25 Sep 2018)

Shane Cassells: Let us take, for example, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. In 2016 there were seven State visits approved by the Office of the President, although I think the number came in at nine in the end. How does that work? Is it the Office of the President that sets down the expenditure figure and how it will work or is it the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade? I am trying to...

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 1 - President's Establishment (25 Sep 2018)

Shane Cassells: I get that. I am trying to get a feel for whether it is the individual Departments that make adjudications on the Office of the President or whether it is the office that makes requests of the individual Departments in terms of how the figure for expenditure anticipated for a coming year is arrived at. Who is making the judgment call on how much it should cost and how much it will cost?

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 1 - President's Establishment (25 Sep 2018)

Shane Cassells: There is a significant increase in the allocation to the OPW, which accounts for €2.5 million, a similar amount to the President's Establishment. That cannot be put down to the cost of events.

Local Government (Restoration of Town Councils) Bill 2018: Second Stage [Private Members] (26 Sep 2018)

Shane Cassells: As the advancement of local government and the need to take centralised power from the Custom House is something about which I am passionate, I am delighted to have the opportunity to speak on this subject this afternoon. Indeed, I introduced a Bill on behalf of Fianna Fáil on the re-establishment of town councils last year, which was brought through Second Stage and committee scrutiny...

Local Government (Restoration of Town Councils) Bill 2018: Second Stage [Private Members] (26 Sep 2018)

Shane Cassells: This morning the local newspaper in that town, theDrogheda Independent, has a front page story arguing that on this very issue it is time to get the power back. That town has felt the loss of those decisions. We will not oppose this Bill on Second Stage because as I said, we believe that any advancement of democratic institutions is to be welcomed. We made a firm commitment to town...

Local Government (Restoration of Town Councils) Bill 2018: Second Stage [Private Members] (26 Sep 2018)

Shane Cassells: The fox in the henhouse.

Local Government (Restoration of Town Councils) Bill 2018: Second Stage [Private Members] (26 Sep 2018)

Shane Cassells: That is some charge. The Minister talks about making charges against Deputy Mattie McGrath and not denigrating. That is some charge.

Local Government (Restoration of Town Councils) Bill 2018: Second Stage [Private Members] (26 Sep 2018)

Shane Cassells: The Minister of State is compounding the errors.

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: State Properties Data (26 Sep 2018)

Shane Cassells: 255. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the full register of State-owned land in County Meath which has been ascertained by his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39014/18]

Committee on Public Petitions: Nursing Home Casebook (Resumed): Minister of State at the Department of Health (26 Sep 2018)

Shane Cassells: I will be very brief. I thank the Minister of State for taking the time to be present at the committee meeting and for engaging on this issue. We have gone through this on numerous occasions at the petitions committee and I have raised it with the Minister of State in the Dáil. I wish to touch on the issue of the additional charges. I note what the Minister of State said in his...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Local Authority Boundaries (27 Sep 2018)

Shane Cassells: 18. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he has engaged with the members of Cork County Council to discuss the issues of concern expressed by it in respect of the city council boundary expansion, specifically in the areas of financial settlement arrangements, outstanding charges from the development contribution scheme and transfer of liabilities, respectively;...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: NAMA Social Housing Provision (27 Sep 2018)

Shane Cassells: 48. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if an explanation was sought from the relevant local authority CEOs or the Housing Agency as to the reason only 2,717 units were taken up by county councils when a total of 6,984 social housing units were offered to their sector by NAMA. [39009/18]

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (27 Sep 2018)

Shane Cassells: This issue has rolled on and on. On the "This Week" programme on RTÉ Radio 1 last Sunday, the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Flanagan, again defended the scheme in spite of the fact that only six communities across the country have taken up the CCTV scheme. He put the onus back on local communities and did not address the fundamental questions raised by the committee in...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (2 Oct 2018)

Shane Cassells: Two weeks ago, I questioned the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and the Environment, Deputy Naughten, on the independent report into the viability of undergrounding the EirGrid North-South interconnector power line which it is proposed will traverse counties Meath, Cavan and Monaghan. He stated that he was to bring the report to the Cabinet. Has a memo on the issue been brought...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (2 Oct 2018)

Shane Cassells: What does it say?