Results 1,741-1,760 of 2,283 for speaker:Matt Shanahan

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Threat of Bark Beetles to Plantations: Discussion (17 Jan 2024)

Matt Shanahan: Is that in terms of hectares or of private licences?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Threat of Bark Beetles to Plantations: Discussion (17 Jan 2024)

Matt Shanahan: Was the Department surprised that there were fewer private applications in?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Threat of Bark Beetles to Plantations: Discussion (17 Jan 2024)

Matt Shanahan: I am not so sure about that. The problem is that the people in the forestry sector I am talking about, those that were looking at forestry, are not looking at it now. Many private farms are not looking at it with all of the other issues that have been going on with forestry for the past while. The problem we now have with the nitrates derogation is that the cost of land has been pushed up....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Threat of Bark Beetles to Plantations: Discussion (17 Jan 2024)

Matt Shanahan: With respect to Mr. Delany, we will face a far more significant economic hit if the beetle comes in from the UK than will the UK, having sent timber here with the beetle in it. That is realistically the output of all of this. That is what we are talking about. It is not about putting the responsibility on other agencies. We need to make sure we have the belt and braces done on a procedure...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Threat of Bark Beetles to Plantations: Discussion (17 Jan 2024)

Matt Shanahan: I accept all of that, but is not the whole point we are discussing that you cannot check all consignments? If somebody were externally reviewing that, apart from the Department and its partners meeting all of their obligations, the fact is that there is a significant amount of product coming in that may potentially be contaminated and may not be picked up. An external risk assessment might...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Threat of Bark Beetles to Plantations: Discussion (17 Jan 2024)

Matt Shanahan: Can I make one final comment?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Threat of Bark Beetles to Plantations: Discussion (17 Jan 2024)

Matt Shanahan: Because Mr. Delany is not in favour of an agency, and he does not seem to be in favour of an external review, to give confidence to the sector, the Department might publish some type of budget to underwrite future losses if we do get an infestation of beetle. At least the farmers who are looking at planting spruce at the moment might look down the road and see that the Government will come...

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Digital Services Bill 2023: Committee Stage (17 Jan 2024)

Matt Shanahan: In terms of the scope of it, the Minister of State might also bring in the likes of the development commissions that do applied research themselves. I am not sure how much statutory support they get for that. If the Minister of State is widening the discussion, it should include those commissions as well.

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Digital Services Bill 2023: Committee Stage (17 Jan 2024)

Matt Shanahan: I wish to make an observation. It appears to me that earlier in the conversation we had been speaking about the resourcing that will be given to Coimisiún na Meán. As part of that, I share some of the concerns Deputy O'Reilly outlined. Some of the work that is being done in terms of the reporting standard should be looking at this issue. What resources are being given to look at...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Capital Supply Service and Purpose Report Bill 2023: Discussion (17 Jan 2024)

Matt Shanahan: First, I thank the Chair and the committee members for meeting with us today. I would like to acknowledge those attending with me today who can hopefully speak to the merits of the Bill under discussion, the Capital Supply Service and Purpose Report Bill 2023. I am joined by Ms Máire Henry, an alumnus of University College Dublin, a previous head of the department of architecture at...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Capital Supply Service and Purpose Report Bill 2023: Discussion (17 Jan 2024)

Matt Shanahan: Correct.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Capital Supply Service and Purpose Report Bill 2023: Discussion (17 Jan 2024)

Matt Shanahan: Yes. To answer the Deputy’s question, I might turn to some of those with me, as they are the ones involved in compiling reports and working at the coalface to grapple with this problem. The two areas where the capital tracker applies are not conducive to seeing lower levels of spending. They are only-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Capital Supply Service and Purpose Report Bill 2023: Discussion (17 Jan 2024)

Matt Shanahan: I might leave that open to our guests.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Capital Supply Service and Purpose Report Bill 2023: Discussion (17 Jan 2024)

Matt Shanahan: When we were drafting the Bill, we engaged with the PBO and OPLA, which in particular was central to looking at this matter. It spoke to Departments and the understanding is that significant investment is already happening in ICT systems. The informal word it came back with was that it was assured reporting standards such as this would not be a problem across all Departments.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Capital Supply Service and Purpose Report Bill 2023: Discussion (17 Jan 2024)

Matt Shanahan: We need to remember that this programme is in retrospect. The value of looking back is it tells us what we have done. It does not tell us what we are going to do. It is to be hoped it informs policy in the future as to how we might change that. The NIO's perspective might be more forward looking. The virtue of the Bill, as highlighted by colleagues, is to provide a transparent template...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Capital Supply Service and Purpose Report Bill 2023: Discussion (17 Jan 2024)

Matt Shanahan: The reason for the five years, and the Deputy highlighted it herself, is that the most important thing is that this Bill will pass, in the first instance, that we would set the base standard and that this is where we would move from. When the OPLA was drafting the Bill, having regard to engaging with different Departments trying to get a feel for this, it felt that if the reporting timeframe...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Capital Supply Service and Purpose Report Bill 2023: Discussion (17 Jan 2024)

Matt Shanahan: I think the Deputy means 100 km/h.