Results 201-220 of 8,500 for speaker:John Brady

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2024: Houses of the Oireachtas Commission (25 Sep 2025)

John Brady: I concur with that and thank Deputy Connolly. I have a few questions myself. To return to the issue of the bicycle shelter, the witnesses already gave the events that led to the bike shelter coming about and the request that came in from the group within the Oireachtas that saw a need for that. Who then engaged with the OPW to advance that request?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2024: Houses of the Oireachtas Commission (25 Sep 2025)

John Brady: It was facilities who initiated it. Who deemed the project urgent? It was labelled an urgent project.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2024: Houses of the Oireachtas Commission (25 Sep 2025)

John Brady: Okay. On the engagement with the OPW, was there then a project team put in place?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2024: Houses of the Oireachtas Commission (25 Sep 2025)

John Brady: Facilities and the service itself had no part of the process from there on in?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2024: Houses of the Oireachtas Commission (25 Sep 2025)

John Brady: There were no meetings about where it should it be located or the design?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2024: Houses of the Oireachtas Commission (25 Sep 2025)

John Brady: Who carried out that engagement? Was that facilities?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2024: Houses of the Oireachtas Commission (25 Sep 2025)

John Brady: At any point, was it deemed necessary to have any engagement with the commission or with facilities, even in terms of design, costing or anything like that? At no point was it deemed necessary to have any engagement by the service or from facilities, even in terms of design or costing. You mentioned earlier that that information was not forthcoming or you did not get that information on the...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2024: Houses of the Oireachtas Commission (25 Sep 2025)

John Brady: To ask a retrospective question: do you think there was a failure in how the process was handled from within the service? Should there have been more hands-on engagement with the OPW throughout that entire process?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2024: Houses of the Oireachtas Commission (25 Sep 2025)

John Brady: I will return to a separate issue. You touched on the work within the Oireachtas to improve accessibility for people with disabilities. I will touch on that because, again this seems to be a retrospective piece of work that has been done. It follows a deeply embarrassing incident last year.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2024: Houses of the Oireachtas Commission (25 Sep 2025)

John Brady: Yes, a group that came in, a HSE Gold Star Disability Awareness Project training programme. It was deeply embarrassing that the lifts were not working. However, there were issues around toilets and other matters as well. You said that was deeply embarrassing and you were apologetic about that. Will you give an overall perspective?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2024: Houses of the Oireachtas Commission (25 Sep 2025)

John Brady: While all of that is welcome, it is also overdue.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2024: Houses of the Oireachtas Commission (25 Sep 2025)

John Brady: We are bound by legislation to ensure that all public buildings are fully accessible. I will return to that in a moment. In your opening statement, you made reference to the work that was done within the Oireachtas over a two-year period at a cost of €17 million. It was a considerable amount of work at considerable cost. You said in the past it was value for money. People will...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2024: Houses of the Oireachtas Commission (25 Sep 2025)

John Brady: I made reference to legislation. The Disability Act 2005 is clear in the sense that public bodies are required to ensure that public buildings are accessible for people with disabilities and disability-proofing, as I described it. It continues in terms of time compliance, which was a ten-year period by which all public buildings were to be compliant in that. It is welcome that...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2024: Houses of the Oireachtas Commission (25 Sep 2025)

John Brady: I welcome that. As the seat of where legislation comes from, we should be setting the gold standard. We should not fall below that.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2024: Houses of the Oireachtas Commission (25 Sep 2025)

John Brady: Where there is legislation to ensure that public bodies and public buildings are fully accessible, we should not drop the ball on that. I welcome the fact that works are going to be carried out. Some of the people engaged in that process expressed some disappointment at the slowness of that process. You might just give us a quick update on where that is. There are procurement issues,...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2024: Houses of the Oireachtas Commission (25 Sep 2025)

John Brady: Reference has been made to the new lift and other items as part of that.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2024: Houses of the Oireachtas Commission (25 Sep 2025)

John Brady: That is welcome. That is all the questions I have. Everyone else had other business to attend to. Before I conclude, like other members, I thank you, Peter, for your work. I have been here for a number of years now. I cannot claim to be a new TD anymore. Certainly, over my time in the Oireachtas, you and all your staff, everyone who works in here, have been phenomenal. Obviously you, as...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2024: Houses of the Oireachtas Commission (25 Sep 2025)

John Brady: -----like some members here, but I wish you well in whatever endeavours the future holds for you.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2024: Houses of the Oireachtas Commission (25 Sep 2025)

John Brady: Thank you, Mr. Finnegan, for that. That concludes our engagement with the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission for today. I again thank Mr. Finnegan and the other officials for attending our meeting. There were a number of specific requests from members that we will follow up, like costings for the provision of security by both the Garda and the Defence Forces. We will follow up on that....

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (23 Sep 2025)

John Brady: 323. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she is aware of the difficulties being experienced on a school transport route (details supplied); the steps being taken by her Department to resolve the matter; and if she will confirm when will the route be operational again. [50277/25]