Results 20,521-20,540 of 26,924 for speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Office of the Appeal Commissioners (Revised) (15 Jan 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I wish to ask the Minister about subhead B4, consultancy and other services. The outturn for 2013 was €3.5 million, yet the Estimate allowed for this year is €6.5 million. That seems like a huge amount of money for consultancy and seems even larger and more significant against a background in which the Minister required only half of that in the previous year. I accept that...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Office of the Appeal Commissioners (Revised) (15 Jan 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I would have the same concerns about the consultancy issue under subhead A but I note from the interesting pie charts that there is a pattern with regard to consultants across all of them.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Office of the Appeal Commissioners (Revised) (15 Jan 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The Minister said that there is insufficient in-house expertise in particular areas because of policy issues or priorities that arise and that there is a need to obtain external expertise. From these pie charts it seems that the proportion is very significant. Under the subhead with which we are dealing, the figure is 19%; under subhead B the figure is an incredible 59% for consultancy and...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Office of the Appeal Commissioners (Revised) (15 Jan 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: In instancing those figures, they involve a good deal of money.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Office of the Appeal Commissioners (Revised) (15 Jan 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I think he probably will. Will he?

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Office of the Appeal Commissioners (Revised) (15 Jan 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Of course, I want to hear the Minister's answer.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Office of the Appeal Commissioners (Revised) (15 Jan 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Whether the amount involved is hundreds of thousands or millions or euro, that is significant. The obvious question that begs an answer is whether it would be cheaper to employ people with that expertise directly. When we are talking of figures of hundreds of thousands of euro or, in one case, millions of euro, it must be asked if it would not be cheaper to employ somebody full-time in...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Estimates for Public Services 2014
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance (Revised)
Vote 8 - Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Revised)
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revised)
Vote 10 - Office of the Appeal Commissioners (Revised) (15 Jan 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I wish to seek some direction from the Chair. There are issues which run across the different programmes and I would like to comment on these. May I do so now or should I wait until later?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Bill 2013: Irish Timber Council and IFFPA (15 Jan 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The document refers to the Bill being "biased in favour of environmental and sustainability issues", which is unfortunate phraseology. I asked a question about freedom of information.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Bill 2013: Irish Timber Council and IFFPA (15 Jan 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I thank the Irish Timber Council and the Irish Forestry and Forest Products Association for their attendance. I apologise for having missed the introductory presentations but I heard some of them on the monitor and will read the full submissions later. I agree with much of what the witnesses have said. We should all share the common objective of having a comprehensive, coherent forest...

Written Answers — Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade: Human Rights Issues (15 Jan 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 14. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he will contact the Egyptian Government to protest against the imprisonment of a number of pro-democracy activists (details supplied) and others who were recently imprisoned for unauthorised protests to demand their immediate release; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1475/14]

Written Answers — Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade: Human Rights Issues (15 Jan 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 26. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the intervention the Irish Government had made or is planning to make with the Egyptian Government to ensure pro-democracy activists are not penalised or imprisoned; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1476/14]

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Employment Rights Issues (15 Jan 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 331. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation his views that a company (details supplied) who provide services to Bank of Ireland, Allied Irish Bank, Eircom and others is adhering to industrial relations regulations; if any complaints have been raised in relation to this company; if he will detail precisely the enforcement regime in place to ensure compliance with employment...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Aviation Issues (15 Jan 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 924. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the reason the Irish Aviation Authority and the Commission for Aviation Regulation declined to participate in the stakeholder consultation prepared for European Commission on the operation of the EU Regulation No. 785/2004 on insurance. [55368/13]

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Expenditure Issues: Irish Water - Uisce Éireann (14 Jan 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: That was not quite what I asked. I shall repeat my first question. Was Uisce Éireann aware that parliamentary questions had been asked?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Expenditure Issues: Irish Water - Uisce Éireann (14 Jan 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Sorry.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Expenditure Issues: Irish Water - Uisce Éireann (14 Jan 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: None of the €100 million referred to went towards fixing the infrastructure.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Expenditure Issues: Irish Water - Uisce Éireann (14 Jan 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: We are none the wiser about whether we got value for money. Let me give one example of the large figure of €44 million that was paid to IBM. That figure left me scratching my head and wondering how many people got a big whack of money in their pocket and what did we get.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Expenditure Issues: Irish Water - Uisce Éireann (14 Jan 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: We must take Mr. Tierney's word that it is money well spent. Can Mr. Tierney understand why people are not terribly trusting when it comes to matters like this one? Let me refer to the article published by The Irish Times but I shall not go into the company's role in the matter. I understand that a lot of what happened with RPS predated the company's involvement in the Poolbeg project. It...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Expenditure Issues: Irish Water - Uisce Éireann (14 Jan 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I have one last question.