Results 15,201-15,220 of 28,162 for speaker:Catherine Murphy

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: BusConnects: Discussion (6 Nov 2019)

Catherine Murphy: I have a few additional questions. I would encourage everyone to use the route planning tool on the NTA's website, which is very good. If people are not sure about the maps, it is very useful to use the route planner. It is important that people use it, even if they are critical of it. The 67 and 66X currently terminate in UCD. Is the reason the terminus is no longer going to be in UCD...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: BusConnects: Discussion (6 Nov 2019)

Catherine Murphy: I think there are approximately 18 services on the 66 and 67 bus routes at peak time in the morning.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: BusConnects: Discussion (6 Nov 2019)

Catherine Murphy: Most of them are probably going into the city centre.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: BusConnects: Discussion (6 Nov 2019)

Catherine Murphy: Bus drivers have a terrific knowledge of what works and what does not work. Are they specifically included as a stakeholder group?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: BusConnects: Discussion (6 Nov 2019)

Catherine Murphy: I will give Mr. Creegan an example of what I mean. Somebody from my office was going out to Lucan last week. The bus driver said that anyone not going to Celbridge should not get on the bus as there would be another one in few minutes. It was said that they would take up space and some passengers for Celbridge would be left waiting an hour. That is what I mean. It is the kind of thing...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: BusConnects: Discussion (6 Nov 2019)

Catherine Murphy: Okay. Deputy MacSharry made a point about transport police. I attended the NBRU conference in August or September and what came up most strongly was the risk. I heard about criminal behaviour rather than anti-social behaviour. I accept that is a policing issue, but it does put people off using public transport if they feel they are mixing with people engaged in criminal behaviour. I...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: BusConnects: Discussion (6 Nov 2019)

Catherine Murphy: Is that Bus Éireann?

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (7 Nov 2019)

Catherine Murphy: As a former Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, I do not suppose the Tánaiste will be surprised that I and others are very critical of the long-term use of the housing assistance payment, HAP, scheme. It is a system that artificially inflates the market and is the single biggest transfer of public funds to private landlords in the history of the State. One aspect of...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (7 Nov 2019)

Catherine Murphy: I used Kildare as an example. The issue is not unique to Kildare and the Tánaiste should please pay attention to that point. I appreciate that things will be done and I hope they are done to a greater extent. Maybe the election will intervene to accelerate that because it is a huge issue. When HAP was introduced the resources were allocated to an agency in Limerick that would pay the...

Dublin Mid-West By-election: Issue of Writ (7 Nov 2019)

Catherine Murphy: I welcome the moving of the writs for these by-elections, of which the Social Democrats will contest three, with Sinéad Halpin in Cork North-West, Tracey Carey in Fingal and Anne-Marie McNally in Dublin Mid-West. We have no problem getting women candidates to run, as the Government can see. They are three excellent candidates. I have already been on the doorsteps in Dublin Mid-West....

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Policing Issues (7 Nov 2019)

Catherine Murphy: 91. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality if he has met with Irish Rail and-or the NTA in respect of forming a dedicated transport police service; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45883/19]

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan (7 Nov 2019)

Catherine Murphy: 183. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the reason for the price differential regarding the national broadband plan price per household here versus a project (details supplied); if his attention has been drawn to a company bidding for the project; if the involvement of the company will impede the delivery of broadband here in view of it being the preferred...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Home Loan Scheme (7 Nov 2019)

Catherine Murphy: 219. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of applications made to the Rebuilding Ireland home loan scheme in 2018 and to date in 2019, by county and or local authority; the number of applications approved; the amount of funding provided to each local authority in 2018 and to date in 2019; if local authorities have made applications for further funding in...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (7 Nov 2019)

Catherine Murphy: I will be very quick because the issues have been outlined well. To find the origin of the problem we have to go back to the original decision rather than the reviews. It was the same building before this started as it was when the reviews were carried out. Over and over again we see a failure to anticipate or understand resource requirements. It is all very well to carry out a review...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (7 Nov 2019)

Catherine Murphy: We cannot have accountability without transparency, and the absence of transparency opens up questions that might not even be valid. No group of people are better able to advise themselves on the law than the legal profession. They are in a commanding position. I have received replies to parliamentary questions on consultancy firms advising various Departments on GDPR. The committee must...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (7 Nov 2019)

Catherine Murphy: Now, GDPR is another component of that. I am an advocate of people having their rights to privacy protected but there is a balance to be struck that reflects the public good and the public purse. We need to get to grips with this aspect, since it will continue being rolled out. For years, we have seen that doctors’ practices-----

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (7 Nov 2019)

Catherine Murphy: ----got the largest amounts. That was unfair sometimes, given that they could be practices with the most patients with medical cards when other practices were not accepting such patients. Some practices also had other stuff, so how the figures were presented were not entirely fair. How is it that one profession can be in the public domain when another is not? As this will be a...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (7 Nov 2019)

Catherine Murphy: I will make a quick comment.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (7 Nov 2019)

Catherine Murphy: What jumps out at me relates to the bog standard things that are involved, for example, cleaning services, schoolbooks, IT and transport by bus companies. There is nothing of a specialist nature. Actually, perhaps the IT element is. It might be a roll-over. None of this is the type of thing one should expect to find where there is not a competitive process.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (7 Nov 2019)

Catherine Murphy: One of the factors was flagged earlier. Wage inflation may well be a reason for an even further overrun. This is not Monopoly money and we must have serious concerns about cost control. There is an opportunity cost in what is not going to be able to be done. There is a degree of spin about this that no other project will be impacted. We have to keep a close eye on this because there is a...