Results 20,281-20,300 of 28,162 for speaker:Catherine Murphy

National Children's Hospital: Motion [Private Members] (29 Mar 2017)

Catherine Murphy: From the outset, this issue was fraught with difficulties and competing demands. The Mater site was rejected on planning grounds and the new site selection process commenced. I must say I was more than surprised when St. James's was selected, but that is what happened. The background has been the many years over which families have waited for and have outgrown a world-class children's...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 31 - Transport, Tourism and Sport (Revised) (29 Mar 2017)

Catherine Murphy: I have not had an opportunity to come in on this area. I was a little late coming back.

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 31 - Transport, Tourism and Sport (Revised) (29 Mar 2017)

Catherine Murphy: On land transport, unless there are substantial increases there will never be enough money to properly maintain the roads. I have a question on late notification to local authorities. Is there an annual or a multi-annual approach to the funding? One of the situations in which money rolls over from one year to the next is where there is a late notification. Is that how the Department...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 31 - Transport, Tourism and Sport (Revised) (29 Mar 2017)

Catherine Murphy: Was there a delay last year when the Government was not in place in terms of the notification of what their budgets would be?

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 31 - Transport, Tourism and Sport (Revised) (29 Mar 2017)

Catherine Murphy: From my experience of being on a local authority for many years, one constant was that it would not be able to set the budgets until March perhaps and then there was a difficulty if it did not get the money spent by October. There was a difficulty in getting it spent within the allotted timeframe and the uncertainty of the funding was always criticised. I know the funding can fluctuate in...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 31 - Transport, Tourism and Sport (Revised) (29 Mar 2017)

Catherine Murphy: I have a question on the motor tax fund as well. It is collected by what was the Department of the Environment and some of it makes up the local government fund and some of it goes to the Central Exchequer. Am I correct in my understanding of how it operates? How is the amount that goes to the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport determined? How is that decided?

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 31 - Transport, Tourism and Sport (Revised) (29 Mar 2017)

Catherine Murphy: How is it decided what goes where? The motor tax fund is a little over €1 billion. I remember it being €1.1. billion the last time-----

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 31 - Transport, Tourism and Sport (Revised) (29 Mar 2017)

Catherine Murphy: A portion of it is retained by the Department with responsibility for the environment, a portion goes to the Department of Finance and some goes to the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport. How is that decided?

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 31 - Transport, Tourism and Sport (Revised) (29 Mar 2017)

Catherine Murphy: I think we would all wish to be associated with the Minister's remarks about the continuing search efforts being made by a range of agencies and volunteers in the area of the crash. I had not been aware that the Coast Guard is not a statutory agency. I do not know why I did not realise this. If it became a statutory body, would there be financial implications and should we perhaps consider...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 31 - Transport, Tourism and Sport (Revised) (29 Mar 2017)

Catherine Murphy: On the decrease of €2.2 million related to administration costs, would that be a recurring cost or a once-off? The point I am making is: would it have to be made up? There was €6.3 million in capital carry-over. Exactly what was the capital project or was it more than one project? When I look at the budget, it strikes me that we as a country are spending more, or at...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 31 - Transport, Tourism and Sport (Revised) (29 Mar 2017)

Catherine Murphy: What we get for what we spend is astonishing. That comes down to a significant level of volunteerism and some of the sporting bodies themselves generating funds. I, too, was hugely impressed the day we went out to Abbotstown. The extent of non-elite participation is phenomenal. Something that arose repeatedly was that we tend to be fragmented in how we do things but this was a...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 31 - Transport, Tourism and Sport (Revised) (29 Mar 2017)

Catherine Murphy: Does it come out of a segment of the budget? Does it come out of the sports segment of the budget or is it just out of general administration?

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 31 - Transport, Tourism and Sport (Revised) (29 Mar 2017)

Catherine Murphy: I would be interested to see the Deloitte report to which the Minister referred. I received a reply from the Department of Finance to a parliamentary question on the 9% VAT rate. My memory is that more than €500 million has been forgone in VAT as a consequence of that reduction. There is a good argument for some of the reduction to be retained but it should be more targeted. Items...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 31 - Transport, Tourism and Sport (Revised) (29 Mar 2017)

Catherine Murphy: The Minister wants the money though.

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 31 - Transport, Tourism and Sport (Revised) (29 Mar 2017)

Catherine Murphy: I understand that it would not be possible to have a differential with respect to the geography. I do not know how one would separate it. However, we have public policy relating to fast food not being particularly good, for example, yet we are giving a VAT advantage to those outlets, which I will not name. I do not believe it was ever intended or understood to apply to things such as...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Bus Éireann: Discussion (Resumed) (29 Mar 2017)

Catherine Murphy: Was the NTA report provided?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Bus Éireann: Discussion (Resumed) (29 Mar 2017)

Catherine Murphy: We all agree that there has been an extraordinary degree of industrial peace given the years of austerity and the punishment people have taken in their take-home pay. It has been said before, but this dispute is not about people seeking a wage increase. It is about people being asked to reduce their take-home income, which is a significant ask of them where they have built up rights over...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Bus Éireann: Discussion (Resumed) (29 Mar 2017)

Catherine Murphy: Some of the routes are not profit-making routes. The Minister knows that. It has already been said. From that perspective, it is not commercial. Transferring them into PSO routes is one mechanism for intervention and provision of resources.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Bus Éireann: Discussion (Resumed) (29 Mar 2017)

Catherine Murphy: At the last meeting the Minister told me that the NTA has a capped amount and, essentially, it would have to stretch it beyond what is possible.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Bus Éireann: Discussion (Resumed) (29 Mar 2017)

Catherine Murphy: I ask the Minister to come back to me on it as a matter of urgency. On the free travel scheme-----