Results 21,301-21,320 of 28,162 for speaker:Catherine Murphy

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Department of Social Protection
Chapter 9 - Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 10 - Roll-out of the Public Services Card
Social Insurance Fund 2015 (20 Oct 2016)

Catherine Murphy: No, there have not even been acknowledgements. I am not talking about a single case. I am looking at trends because I-----

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Department of Social Protection
Chapter 9 - Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 10 - Roll-out of the Public Services Card
Social Insurance Fund 2015 (20 Oct 2016)

Catherine Murphy: Yes, for contributory pension and I am finding the delays are getting longer, unless I am getting very unusual-----

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Department of Social Protection
Chapter 9 - Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 10 - Roll-out of the Public Services Card
Social Insurance Fund 2015 (20 Oct 2016)

Catherine Murphy: There are very lengthy delays for respite grants. Four months looks like the-----

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Department of Social Protection
Chapter 9 - Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 10 - Roll-out of the Public Services Card
Social Insurance Fund 2015 (20 Oct 2016)

Catherine Murphy: These are respite grants where the reply came in.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Department of Social Protection
Chapter 9 - Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 10 - Roll-out of the Public Services Card
Social Insurance Fund 2015 (20 Oct 2016)

Catherine Murphy: I will come back to Ms O'Donoghue directly with these cases. The point I am making is that there is a large number of staff available and I wonder how the Department is managing this. We are talking about the experience of people who have contributed all their lives and face an inordinate delay getting something to which they are entitled.

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Department of Social Protection
Chapter 9 - Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 10 - Roll-out of the Public Services Card
Social Insurance Fund 2015 (20 Oct 2016)

Catherine Murphy: I would like to ask a couple of brief questions about JobPath. This scheme is also in operation in the UK. There was much criticism in advance of it being rolled out here. Did the Department undertake an analysis of the UK scheme? What contractual obligations have been already entered into and what has been the experience?

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Department of Social Protection
Chapter 9 - Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 10 - Roll-out of the Public Services Card
Social Insurance Fund 2015 (20 Oct 2016)

Catherine Murphy: How much are the contractors paid?

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Department of Social Protection
Chapter 9 - Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 10 - Roll-out of the Public Services Card
Social Insurance Fund 2015 (20 Oct 2016)

Catherine Murphy: Will Ms O'Donoghue forward the information to the committee?

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Department of Social Protection
Chapter 9 - Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 10 - Roll-out of the Public Services Card
Social Insurance Fund 2015 (20 Oct 2016)

Catherine Murphy: In regard to mandatory participation in the scheme, what quality controls are in place in terms of the suitability of the offers made?

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Department of Social Protection
Chapter 9 - Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 10 - Roll-out of the Public Services Card
Social Insurance Fund 2015 (20 Oct 2016)

Catherine Murphy: In regard to other activation measures, it would appear that JobPath takes prominence over Tús. Is that how the Department designed it?

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government: Wind Energy Guidelines (20 Oct 2016)

Catherine Murphy: 119. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government when he will publish wind energy guidelines; the aspects that those guidelines will address; the reason for the delay in publishing them to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31356/16]

Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2016: Second Stage (Resumed) (19 Oct 2016)

Catherine Murphy: We believe the establishment of an independent office for the planning regulator is welcome in principle, although we have concerns about it being independent. That is something that is likely to come up on Committee Stage. The Mahon tribunal cost in excess of €160 million, although the currency was in pounds when the tribunal started its work. That demonstrates the length of...

Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2016: Second Stage (Resumed) (19 Oct 2016)

Catherine Murphy: I will deal with it a little later but if another planning authority is making the decision, it erodes the local government system further. The planning regulator will be responsible for looking at the systems and procedures in local authorities. There is not a uniformity in local authorities and there are great variations, for example, in the number of staff available, depending on what...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: A Vision for Public Transport: Discussion (Resumed) (19 Oct 2016)

Catherine Murphy: Public transport is bus based because of the way our population is dispersed but with regard to heavy rail, if we take Dublin and Cork, for example, Dublin has a much wider footprint. The three outer counties, and it is four if we include Louth, would benefit from, say, DART underground, which has been described as the game changer. One of the reasons we got European Union funding for the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: A Vision for Public Transport: Discussion (Resumed) (19 Oct 2016)

Catherine Murphy: I have two questions. One is about the 10%. How sure is the witness that she is comparing like with like in respect of competitiveness? I imagine with the reduction in the subvention that services have been pared back to the minimum. That is part of the reason there were fare increases and so forth. When one looks at back-up services, the quality of transport and wage rates, is it a fair...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: A Vision for Public Transport: Discussion (Resumed) (19 Oct 2016)

Catherine Murphy: It is probably rare that ICTU and IBEC agree on something. They both refer to the lack of capital investment. We can see it, especially because congestion is a significant issue. The committee's initiative aims to chart a course for the future of transport and public transport in particular. The three points about a detailed study are useful. I asked the Oireachtas Library to do a study,...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Catherine Murphy: The witnesses are very welcome. Mr. Soffe said in his statement that there was an obligation placed on NAMA by the Oireachtas to do its business commercially and expeditiously. NAMA also had a policy of openly marketing loan sales but it deviated from that with the Project Eagle sale. It was only very late in the day that other bidders were invited into the process and the timeline seems...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Catherine Murphy: Was Lazard not brought in after PIMCO withdrew? If that is the case, it did not advise NAMA of it in advance. I think it would be fair to say it advised NAMA in hindsight. It has been suggested that Northern Ireland was a different category, but 50% of the assets associated with the loans were not based in Northern Ireland. Why were they not separated out? They would not have raised the...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Catherine Murphy: I ask Mr. Soffe to address the questions I have asked.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (18 Oct 2016)

Catherine Murphy: Yes, I can see that that could be the case. It seems to have been the case in almost all of the Northern Ireland loan portfolio and not just parts of it. Is that how Mr. McEnery sees it?