Results 17,721-17,740 of 20,245 for speaker:Brian Stanley

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (18 Apr 2024)

Brian Stanley: My understanding is that the governing authority made the appointment. The assumption is that when the deputy president took over the role, there was a formal procedure where the governing authority had to make a decision. I welcome the fact that has been done and it allows them to be brought in here in the very near future. We have that on the work programme. We move on to the next...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (18 Apr 2024)

Brian Stanley: When you say the budget are you referring-----

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (18 Apr 2024)

Brian Stanley: One of the issues that came up in that area is that they administer the money for footpaths under active travel. One of the issues that comes up is - wait for it - they insist on consultants being brought in to do a design. I do not know about the other members of the committee. The person who told me that a few years ago was an area engineer. I said to him that he is a qualified...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (18 Apr 2024)

Brian Stanley: One of the other things that is happening with this is that although the area engineer deals internally in the council, working with the councillors and other council staff, an active travel project can happen in their area and they will not have a clue what is going on because it is a completely separate channel. That needs to be dealt with at local authority level. The area engineer needs...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (18 Apr 2024)

Brian Stanley: If they are given an additional engineer, which is the case-----

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (18 Apr 2024)

Brian Stanley: I can only talk about my neck of the woods. The additional engineers have been granted. The problem is that it is two different silos.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (18 Apr 2024)

Brian Stanley: Well, €200,000 was lost. I take on board what Deputy Murphy said. In this case it was not lost because of the local authority, but because of the insistence on consultants.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (18 Apr 2024)

Brian Stanley: They could not be got, whereas an engineer - any engineer and there are engineers - could put it together in a few days. That is the point I am making. We will have the big discussion later.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (18 Apr 2024)

Brian Stanley: We will ask about active travel. We are mainly talking about cycleways, walking routes and footpaths.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (18 Apr 2024)

Brian Stanley: Okay.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (18 Apr 2024)

Brian Stanley: We actually have the letter here.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (18 Apr 2024)

Brian Stanley: We will get to it soon. Last week, it was agreed to schedule meetings with the Department of Transport and Waterways Ireland. The secretariat has been in contact with both regarding availability. It is proposed to hold a meeting with Waterways Ireland on 4 July. Is that agreed? Agreed. No suitable date before the summer recess is available to meet with the Department of Transport, so...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (18 Apr 2024)

Brian Stanley: The secretariat has been in contact with the Department of Transport. The Secretary General of that Department will be out of the country for work reasons in the last week of June and the first week of July. The officials would be available in the second week of July, but not in the morning slot. I suggest that we need them in for a full hearing and that we should not confine ourselves to...

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (18 Apr 2024)

Brian Stanley: Yes.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (18 Apr 2024)

Brian Stanley: We will move on to 9 May. As I said earlier, we now have an Accounting Officer, Mr. Kilcommins, so we will engage with the University of Limerick about financial statements. I note the president will be absent so the chancellor has been requested to attend, as have representatives of the Higher Education Authority, the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (18 Apr 2024)

Brian Stanley: I will come back to the Deputy in a minute. I will get a note on it. That leaves three available meeting slots before the summer recess. The committee previously agreed to examine the 2022 financial statements of the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board, IHRB, when they are ready. There is a chapter in the Comptroller and Auditor General's annual report on estates management in the...

Support for Carers: Motion [Private Members] (24 Apr 2024)

Brian Stanley: While there was a great deal of money in the budget this year, it failed people with disabilities, their families and carers. The Government failed the 1,752 carers in County Laois and the 2,182 carers in County Offaly. Those are just the people in receipt of payments and, of course, there are thousands who do not get payments. Many of those are struggling to secure respite care and people...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (24 Apr 2024)

Brian Stanley: I raise the commitment in the programme for Government with regard to improving primary care services. There is a chronic shortage of GPs in Laois and Offaly. There are 37 practising GPs in Laois, which is one for every 2,483 of the population. Five have resigned in the past two years and four have retired, which is a loss of nine. In Offaly, there are just 31 practising GPs, which breaks...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (24 Apr 2024)

Brian Stanley: Take it up with the Minister for Health.

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Public Sector Staff (23 Apr 2024)

Brian Stanley: 455. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality if she will bring forward legislation to extend the retirement age for prison officers to 62 years given some of the current staff will pass the age of 60 years in the coming weeks and months. [17876/24]