Results 23,861-23,880 of 32,864 for speaker:Paschal Donohoe

Other Questions: Infrastructure and Capital Investment Programme (1 Jun 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: I am very strongly aware of the need to increase capital investment. I know the Deputy understands these matters very well, and the choice we have is regarding how we do this in a way that does not cause the price of what we are looking to build to increase so we end up building projects at a higher cost than we should. We have been down that path before. To do this, it is important that...

Other Questions: Infrastructure and Capital Investment Programme (1 Jun 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: It is not the voice of officialdom making these points, it is me. If we were in a situation where we ended up paying more for projects than we should, the Deputy would be in here immediately criticising me for doing it. I will not allow the taxpayer to be in that place. If we look at what we are planning to do, from a capital expenditure point of view, as it is this year we will invest...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: European Investment Bank (1 Jun 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: Responsibility for policy on the Stability and Growth Pact rests with my colleague, the Minister for Finance. Both the Minister for Finance and I visited the European Investment Bank, EIB, in Luxembourg last week on 23 and 24 May 2017 and met with a large delegation of EIB officials led by President Werner Hoyer and Vice President Andrew McDowell. The purpose of our visit was...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: European Investment Bank (1 Jun 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: I agree with some of the Deputy's analysis on the importance of infrastructure for Europe now. I contend that one of the great risks we face is that if we get the EU and the eurozone back on a trajectory of economic growth, it may not be inclusive, which it has to be. If one does not have infrastructure in place, whether it is housing or education, one will not be able to deliver...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: European Investment Bank (1 Jun 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: Yes, indeed. We are having significant technical discussions with the bank at the moment to see if there are new ways to address the project needs we have. We have to decide what the project needs are first and then decide whether the EIB offers an attractive source of funding for them.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: European Investment Bank (1 Jun 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: No. I have a clear figure in mind as to where I think infrastructure investment needs to get. I am now working with all of my Government colleagues to decide what projects will get us there because while a figure is important, it is even more important to have quality projects in which we want to invest. As regards the funding role of the EIB, we must bear in mind that there are other...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Pension Provisions (1 Jun 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: When inviting the public services committee of ICTU last month to the public service pay talks which are now in progress, I indicated a separate process of consultation would take place with an association representing public service pensioners. Most recently, my officials met with representatives of the Alliance of Retired Public Servants who articulated the concerns and interests of public...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Pension Provisions (1 Jun 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: All the Deputy is offering is hollow rhetoric. He stands up on issue after issue, and in respect of groups that have been affected by the decisions that were made and the calamity of the crisis the country went through he brings them all in and promises them Sinn Féin will give them everything they want. It is hollow rhetoric at best. Deputies stand in the House and say they want...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Pension Provisions (1 Jun 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: The Deputy may declaim that he accepts the need to cut our choices according to the resources that are available, but I never see any evidence of this from Sinn Féin. I read the document to which the Deputy referred and I am aware of what he wants to do from a public pay policy point of view. My point is still very strong against all that the Deputy claims. Every member of the...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Pension Provisions (1 Jun 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: We are able to borrow on top of that. We have to make choices available to us on the basis of the funding we have. If we do not do that.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Pension Provisions (1 Jun 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: I am very used to this. It does not make any difference. Again and again, I see that Sinn Féin is well able to dole it out but is not able to take it back. The only way it can respond to its arguments being challenged is in the same manner as Deputy Cullinane. 4 o’clock I make the point again that we have seen regarding pensions and pay their efforts to promise to people...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Pay (1 Jun 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: This matter has been raised by the Deputy and a number of other Deputies for some time, and I and my officials instigated much work to clarify what that figure would be. We estimate, as I said, that it would be more than €209 million. We have come to this figure on the basis of a cost in education of €70 million, using that figure then to work out what the consequences would...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Pay (1 Jun 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: If one were to accept - and I do not - that we have a generalised recruitment issue within our public services, and if one were then to go on to argue that its main cause is insufficient pay, the largest single contribution the State can make to higher levels of pay is the affordable unwinding of FEMPI legislation. If that is done in a way that is affordable to the State, it will result over...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Pay (1 Jun 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: I have always been very clear about recognising the huge contribution our public servants make to our State and our economy, and I am very happy to make that clear again. Deputy Calleary used the example of the gardaí and the huge contribution they make to keeping our streets and communities safe. I will develop his analysis further. The pay commission accepts that in certain specific...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Pay (1 Jun 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: Then let us consider what is happening in the HSE at present. From November of last year to March of this year, the HSE recruited 500 persons per month to work in the different services the HSE provides. This is because of our commitment to treat people fairly but in a way that is affordable to the Exchequer and recognises all the other needs on which all the Deputies will question me in a...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Pensions Data (1 Jun 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the Deputy. I will answer the tabled question first, and I will then give him the update he seeks. My Department is responsible for Government policy on civil and public service pensions.  In that context, the Department monitors relevant pension developments outside the Irish public service, including in the areas of private sector pensions, social insurance based...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Pensions Data (1 Jun 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: On the Deputy's first question as to whether this work was done in advance of the Public Service Pay Commission and this process beginning, it was done in advance of it, but it would be fair to say that it was not commissioned for it. This was work that we had under way and it has informed what we are doing. Regarding the Deputy's second question about what we have tabled, we have...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Pensions Data (1 Jun 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: In terms of how we will deal with that body and people who are already pensioners, which is what the Deputy is referring to, I have met that body and had a discussion with it regarding issues on behalf of its members. They will not be part of the process currently under way in the WRC because they do not have a representative status. They do not have the same parity as either a union or a...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Sector Pay (1 Jun 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: I propose to take Questions Nos. 2 and 3 together. The 10% reductions in starting pay for certain new entrants were introduced in January 2011 as part of the national recovery plan in order to reduce the public service pay bill by the then Government. The issue of addressing the difference in incremental salary scales between those public servants who entered public...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Sector Pay (1 Jun 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: As the Deputy is aware I am obliged under the legislation to undertake  an Annual Review of the operation and effectiveness of the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Acts (FEMPI) which is laid before the Oireachtas by the end of June each year. The most recent review, laid before the Oireachtas on 29 June last, found that there was a continued necessity for...