Results 1,661-1,680 of 32,547 for speaker:Paschal Donohoe

Public Accounts Committee: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, Houses of the Oireachtas Commission - Review of Allowances (23 Oct 2012)

Paschal Donohoe: By "new scheme" Mr. Coughlan means the combination of the public representation allowance and the travel and accommodation allowance.

Public Accounts Committee: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, Houses of the Oireachtas Commission - Review of Allowances (23 Oct 2012)

Paschal Donohoe: The combination of these yields an approximate saving of €1 million per year over the old system. What is the cost of the two of them together?

Public Accounts Committee: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, Houses of the Oireachtas Commission - Review of Allowances (23 Oct 2012)

Paschal Donohoe: Vouching and fobbing are modest expectations with regard to how taxpayer's money is spent. It is very important this is maintained and increased.

Public Accounts Committee: Department of Education and Skills - Review of Allowances (24 Oct 2012)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the officials for attending and for the volume and quality of the documentation that was forwarded. It is helpful for these discussions because it is all about the detail, as I have learned during the three days we have been examining allowances. Earlier, reference was made to officials being involved in the creation of this system in the past. I am conscious that when officials...

Public Accounts Committee: Department of Education and Skills - Review of Allowances (24 Oct 2012)

Paschal Donohoe: I was not aware that Mr. Burke would take it as a compliment but I am gratified that he has. Much, if not all, of what has been done is the result of political choices. Officials present the choices and other people make the decisions. It is not the case that they or their predecessors set out to create a system such as this independent of the fact that Ministers head up Departments....

Public Accounts Committee: Department of Education and Skills - Review of Allowances (24 Oct 2012)

Paschal Donohoe: I make the assumption that a principal's allowance is not an allowance, but a payment for doing a bigger job. We then end up with something that is consistent with what we saw in the Defence Forces. Am I right in saying that once the principal's allowance is stripped out, as one goes up the income scale the percentage of one's total income that consists of allowances decreases?

Public Accounts Committee: Department of Education and Skills - Review of Allowances (24 Oct 2012)

Paschal Donohoe: I am stripping that out.

Public Accounts Committee: Department of Education and Skills - Review of Allowances (24 Oct 2012)

Paschal Donohoe: I am stripping that out and putting the view on it that it is not an allowance. I believe it is a payment for doing a bigger job.

Public Accounts Committee: Department of Education and Skills - Review of Allowances (24 Oct 2012)

Paschal Donohoe: I am conscious that much work was done in preparation for the meeting. I will ask for two small pieces of additional work that the witnesses might share with us. I ask them to produce a table similar to appendix A showing how things might look in five years when more of our new teachers are within the system. I also ask them to produce this sheet and break out the principal's allowance and...

Public Accounts Committee: Department of Education and Skills - Review of Allowances (24 Oct 2012)

Paschal Donohoe: I want to bring that to a conclusion. I say we should take that piece out in order to understand the situation now and for the future. A conclusion that could come out of our work is greater clarity on where exactly the allowances go. I would be grateful if the witnesses could share that with us. Having clarified that, I wish to return to a point Mr. Burke made earlier in the session....

Public Accounts Committee: Department of Education and Skills - Review of Allowances (24 Oct 2012)

Paschal Donohoe: Choices such as this have been made in the past to avoid increases across entire worker groups, which of course would be difficult to justify.

Public Accounts Committee: Department of Education and Skills - Review of Allowances (24 Oct 2012)

Paschal Donohoe: I wanted to tease that out because it goes to the heart of much of the discussion we are having.

Public Accounts Committee: Department of Education and Skills - Review of Allowances (24 Oct 2012)

Paschal Donohoe: Okay. I wish to discuss appendix C. Appendix A gives real-life examples and provides a micro-view of where the allowances go, while appendix C gives the macro-view. I want to ensure I understand this table. The principal row indicates that on average 23.4% of a principal's total salary consists of an allowance. Is that correct?

Public Accounts Committee: Department of Education and Skills - Review of Allowances (24 Oct 2012)

Paschal Donohoe: For a principal.

Public Accounts Committee: Department of Education and Skills - Review of Allowances (24 Oct 2012)

Paschal Donohoe: Does that include his or her allowance for being a principal?

Public Accounts Committee: Department of Education and Skills - Review of Allowances (24 Oct 2012)

Paschal Donohoe: Can I ask Mr. Ó Foghlú to give us this table again-----

Public Accounts Committee: Department of Education and Skills - Review of Allowances (24 Oct 2012)

Paschal Donohoe: Yes, that is fine. Can I ask the Department to produce the table for us again with that allowance omitted? It would allow us to ascertain on average how much of a principal's salary consists of other allowances that are not related to the additional work involved in being a principal. With regard to the 3.9% figure for supervision and substitution allowance, does that mean that for the...

Public Accounts Committee: Department of Education and Skills - Review of Allowances (24 Oct 2012)

Paschal Donohoe: I want to make sure I have that clarification. For a teacher who is doing that work, the allowance makes up 4% of his or her annual salary?

Public Accounts Committee: Department of Education and Skills - Review of Allowances (24 Oct 2012)

Paschal Donohoe: That strips out the teachers who are not doing it.

Public Accounts Committee: Department of Education and Skills - Review of Allowances (24 Oct 2012)

Paschal Donohoe: I understand. On the second page, I assume the principle is the same - although that is the wrong phrase to use.