Results 21,501-21,520 of 35,894 for speaker:Pearse Doherty

Committee on Arrangements for Budgetary Scrutiny: Engagement with Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (22 Jun 2016)

Pearse Doherty: Should the office have the ability to have independent costings of the relevant Department, so if it was a taxation issue, that it could be independent of the Department of Finance's costings?

Committee on Arrangements for Budgetary Scrutiny: Engagement with Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (22 Jun 2016)

Pearse Doherty: That is quite interesting and it clarifies my own views on this matters well. The Department will have a very strong view that there will be no second set of costings. The Department of Finance costing are the costings. The Department of Public Expenditure costings are the costings and the question is then what does one do, as Professor McHale mentioned - is it just a clearing house, where...

Committee on Arrangements for Budgetary Scrutiny: Engagement with Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (22 Jun 2016)

Pearse Doherty: I think Professor McHale mentioned he was open to providing data that underpins his report to the committee. I am not sure if I ever sent a letter looking for that data. I do not think I got it anyway.

Committee on Arrangements for Budgetary Scrutiny: Engagement with Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (22 Jun 2016)

Pearse Doherty: Professor McHale knows more than most that data can be abused. The Office for Budget Responsibility in London has come out and said in regard to the election campaign that there was a massive abuse of data by some of the campaigners. That is why it is important to have as much data as possible but I take the point that a data dump will frustrate the committee. I am not sure how many...

Committee on Arrangements for Budgetary Scrutiny: Engagement with Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (22 Jun 2016)

Pearse Doherty: That is the problem. We heard from the ESRI earlier of the number of reports from it which are not being read by all parliamentarians. I am not reading all their reports. We need to be careful in terms of the amount of data we have and the presentation of data. I agree 100% with Professor McHale in regard to the standstill position that should be presented. It gives a false reading by...

Committee on Arrangements for Budgetary Scrutiny: Engagement with Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (22 Jun 2016)

Pearse Doherty: Yes.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2016
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (22 Jun 2016)

Pearse Doherty: I wish the Chairman well in his role. I welcome the Minister of State and wish him well. I will be brief as I have to attend a meeting of the Committee on Arrangements for Budgetary Scrutiny 10 o'clock. I concur with everything the Chairman said on this exercise. This is one of the areas we are looking at and will be bringing forward recommendations so this is more than just a box ticking...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2016
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (22 Jun 2016)

Pearse Doherty: Does the Minister of State not believe that, given his responsibility under CFRAM and the fact the insurance industry is using maps being produced not to insure households and is not dealing with demountables, he has a responsibility to engage with the insurance industry? Is it his intention not to meet with members of the insurance industry?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2016
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (22 Jun 2016)

Pearse Doherty: I will move on from this. It will be surprising and disappointing to households and businesses that have been flooded or are at risk of flooding and whose insurance companies refuse to insure them when their premiums are coming up for renewal, that Deputy Canney, as Minister of State, has not decided to lift the telephone to members of the insurance industry to ask them to get a grip on the...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2016
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (22 Jun 2016)

Pearse Doherty: When does the Minister of State expect to publish the interdepartmental flood policy co-ordinating group's report?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2016
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (22 Jun 2016)

Pearse Doherty: It will probably be September.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2016
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (22 Jun 2016)

Pearse Doherty: Does the OPW have a view on whether a pooled resources fund is required to deal with the effects of flood damages as in the case of some other countries, for example, Britain?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2016
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (22 Jun 2016)

Pearse Doherty: Does the Minister of State have a view on it?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2016
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (22 Jun 2016)

Pearse Doherty: On the specific question of a pooled fund, which would be there to deal with the effects of flood damage, is the Minister of State saying that it is on the table for consideration?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2016
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (22 Jun 2016)

Pearse Doherty: The Estimates and programme A provide for six schemes. Am I to understand that no major flood risk schemes commenced in 2015? Is that what I read from these? Of the seven major flood relief schemes that were to commence last year, none commenced at all? Is that correct? Will the Minister of State explain why there was such a failure?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2016
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (22 Jun 2016)

Pearse Doherty: Why were none of the targets of major flood schemes delivered in 2015? How could that have happened?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2016
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (22 Jun 2016)

Pearse Doherty: So this is internal nonsense that we created to delay projects.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2016
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (22 Jun 2016)

Pearse Doherty: At this point, approaching the middle of the year, only one of the six major flood relief schemes that are to commence in 2016 has commenced. I presume those six are some of the seven that were supposed to start last year.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2016
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (22 Jun 2016)

Pearse Doherty: This year, we are not even targeting to start the seven that we targeted last year.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2016
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (22 Jun 2016)

Pearse Doherty: Let me clarify this for the committee. Seven major flood relief schemes were to start in 2015 but none of them started. Are we agreed on that?