Results 2,161-2,180 of 5,388 for speaker:John Deasy

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Property Valuations (11 Mar 2014)

John Deasy: 199. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he will provide a percentage breakdown of businesses whose rental values increased, decreased and stayed static arising from the recent revaluation process in Waterford city and county, including the Dungarvan Town Council administrative area; the average percentage of their previous rental value by which businesses were revalued...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade
Chapter 13 - Official Development Assistance (6 Mar 2014)

John Deasy: I refer to recommendation No. 3 which states that a diagrammatic flow of funds for all grants to partners should be prepared at country level that will clearly illustrate the flow of funds from initial disbursement to final beneficiary. This would seem to be obvious and one would ask why this procedure was not in place previous to this. Is that a fair question?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade
Chapter 13 - Official Development Assistance (6 Mar 2014)

John Deasy: I refer to the Uganda programme for 2013. Apart from €300,000 which is being examined by the Comptroller and Auditor General, there is a misconception that Ireland has suspended aid to Uganda but this is not the case. Apart from that €300,000 we have merely stopped putting money through the governmental systems. Is this the case?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade
Chapter 13 - Official Development Assistance (6 Mar 2014)

John Deasy: Mr. Rogers has listed where the money has gone in Uganda in the past year, a total of €21.7 million. How are these programmes determined? It is clear that the Department diverted money quickly.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade
Chapter 13 - Official Development Assistance (6 Mar 2014)

John Deasy: This is the point of my questions. I have been involved in this area for a good few years and it has been beaten into me that the best way of spending our money is by means of the governmental systems. There is a reason we are not doing this in Uganda. Has the Synthesis report changed the Department's view with regard to that approach anywhere else? It has always been the policy mantra...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade
Chapter 13 - Official Development Assistance (6 Mar 2014)

John Deasy: Has the Department made decisions about any other missions or programmes?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade
Chapter 13 - Official Development Assistance (6 Mar 2014)

John Deasy: I understand this may be the last time Mr. Cooney and Mr. Rogers will be attending the Committee of Public Accounts. I wish them both the best in the future.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade
Chapter 13 - Official Development Assistance (6 Mar 2014)

John Deasy: When will it reopen?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade
Chapter 13 - Official Development Assistance (6 Mar 2014)

John Deasy: On the subject of presence, I wish to ask about Crimea. Somebody helpfully pointed out to me that the Department has an advisory note on its website about Ukraine. De we know how many Irish nationals are in Ukraine or how many are in Crimea? What kind of system do we have if there is a serious problem in that area?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade
Chapter 13 - Official Development Assistance (6 Mar 2014)

John Deasy: Is Mr. Cooney saying he is not aware of any Irish nationals in Ukraine apart from journalists?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade
Chapter 13 - Official Development Assistance (6 Mar 2014)

John Deasy: I am glad I clarified that. I refer to the Synthesis report. As I understand the process after what happened in Uganda, the heads of mission reviewed their own programmes; there was a meeting and they dealt with common themes. After what the Comptroller and Auditor General reported on in 2012 with regard to a risk dashboard, this is the report and recommendations we arrived at. Some of...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade
Chapter 13 - Official Development Assistance (6 Mar 2014)

John Deasy: I apologise for cutting across Mr. Cooney. Did we not get more than the money back? Am I right in saying that because of the currency exchange rate, we actually achieved more than the €4 million as it turned out?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade
Chapter 13 - Official Development Assistance (6 Mar 2014)

John Deasy: How much did we make?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade
Chapter 13 - Official Development Assistance (6 Mar 2014)

John Deasy: So we made €100,000 on the deal; we got our money back and we made €100,000 on top of it.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade
Chapter 13 - Official Development Assistance (6 Mar 2014)

John Deasy: I wish to go through the process here. The report has just been published and obviously the Comptroller and Auditor General would not have had a chance to go through the report and the effect of the recommendations. He has not had a chance to review and analyse it. However, the process is that he would review these recommendations from the report which he instigated.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade
Chapter 13 - Official Development Assistance (6 Mar 2014)

John Deasy: What does Mr. Cooney mean when he says it has made a difference?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade
Chapter 13 - Official Development Assistance (6 Mar 2014)

John Deasy: I agree with Mr. Cooney. However, the fact that we have opened an embassy in Africa for that reason is a pretty significant shift when one considers our recent history and the reasons that we set up missions in our programme countries. It is a significant shift to do it for those reasons.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade
Chapter 13 - Official Development Assistance (6 Mar 2014)

John Deasy: Mr. Cooney mentioned eight missions. Are we including the Holy See in this?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 27 - International Co-operation
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade
Chapter 13 - Official Development Assistance (6 Mar 2014)

John Deasy: I heard the Tánaiste speak in the Dáil a couple of days ago about the new missions. He said the centre of economic gravity is shifting to the east. He spoke about the further development of our presence in the United States of America and a reconfiguration of our approach in Africa. He spoke about new missions in, for example, Indonesia. Can we go through the continents? It...

Written Answers — Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade: Irish Language Issues (5 Mar 2014)

John Deasy: 45. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he will provide a breakdown of his Department's expenditure on translating and printing Irish language publications, documents, advertisements, notices and bilingual signage in each of the past three years. [11050/14]