Results 24,041-24,060 of 32,865 for speaker:Paschal Donohoe

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Brexit Issues (13 Apr 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: Brexit issues in my Department are co-ordinated centrally by the Department's Brexit/EU/North-South unit. The unit oversees Brexit work across the Department and acts as the contact point with the Department of the Taoiseach and other Departments. It is represented on the interdepartmental group on Brexit and related groups, and supports me in my work as a member of the Cabinet Committee on...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Brexit Issues (13 Apr 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: We have the right personnel and the right vision in relation to this. To back up that assertion, I point to the fact that our national interest in the Border in relation to the movement of people has now been recognised in the draft negotiation mandate that has been provided by the European Council and has also been recognised in a mandate that was drafted by the European Parliament. Not...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Brexit Issues (13 Apr 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: It is good to hear Deputy Mattie McGrath make reference to the positive role of the European Union and the positive role that it has played, through the Single Market, in providing export markets-----

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Brexit Issues (13 Apr 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: -----to the companies to which he referred. That Single Market and the support that those companies have received from Irish agencies has been crucial in allowing companies to grow and to the significant development that has taken place in the country over the past 40 to 50 years. The Deputy makes the point in relation to the Border. I repeat the point I made to him a moment ago. That...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Freedom of Information (13 Apr 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: I appreciate from where the Deputy is coming. I was a member of the Committee of Public Accounts for a number of years. The issue in regard to the qualification of public private partnerships and the difficulty in getting information on them is one with which I am familiar. The reason, as I have alluded to, has two elements. The first is that where a semi-State commercial body which is...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Freedom of Information (13 Apr 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: I accept the principles the Deputy is raising. When I was commenting on the initial formulation of metro north many years ago, I raised similar points, stating it was very difficult to understand some aspects of the then project because every time one tried to gain access to some information, one was told it was commercially sensitive, to the extent that, at one point, it was actually...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Service Pay Commission (13 Apr 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: As the Deputy is aware, A Programme for a Partnership Government committed the Government to establish a public service pay commission to examine pay levels across the public service. In line with this commitment, the Government agreed in principle in July last year to establish an independent advisory body to examine public service remuneration. This is always a complex matter involving,...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Service Pay Commission (13 Apr 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: On the timing, I expect the commission to report in or before May. Therefore, I do not expect the report to be issued towards the end of quarter 2. The discussions will be very difficult, as will all of the proceedings for the next year. The Deputy has made reference to where we stand from a resource point of view for next year. The answer is that, once the commitments the Government has...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Sale of State Assets (13 Apr 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: In the context of planning for the use of the proceeds arising from the State assets disposal programme, which included the sale of Bord Gáis Energy, my Department consulted with the Central Statistics Office, via the Department of Finance, in regard to the statistical treatment of the proceeds and their impact on the general Government balance. My Department did not have direct...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Sale of State Assets (13 Apr 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: The broad answer to that question is that, over the last number of years, €1.5 billion has been received by the State that is the proceeds of State assets and the disposal of State assets. It has been used at different points. For example, in June 2013, €150 million was made available for investment in schools and roads projects. An amount of those disposal gains has been...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Sale of State Assets (13 Apr 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: I will deal first with the Deputy's description of spin in regard to the investment in public housing. There is no spin about the fact €5 billion has been made available for public housing investment.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Sale of State Assets (13 Apr 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: The €5 billion is being invested and I have proof of this. I look at the progress being made in Dominick Street where a public housing project, long heralded and much needed, is now going ahead. I look at O'Devaney Gardens, a project that, when it collapsed over ten years ago, was emblematic of the beginning of the collapse of our economy. Later this year we will see the sod turned...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Freedom of Information (13 Apr 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: Section 36 of the Freedom of Information Act 2014 sets out an exemption provision under which an FOI request can be refused where the requested information includes commercially sensitive information of a third party. This provision requires that decision makers should consider, before reaching a final determination, whether "the public interest would, on balance, be better served by...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Cross-Border Projects (13 Apr 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: As I have previously indicated to the House, this Government remains firmly committed to the successful implementation of the PEACE and INTERREG Programmes and to successor programmes post-2020. Ireland currently takes part in three EU-funded cross-border programmes with the UK: the PEACE Programme, the Ireland/Northern Ireland/Scotland INTERREG Programme and the Ireland/Wales INTERREG...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Sector Pay (13 Apr 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: As the Deputy is aware this Government is committed to increasing public expenditure in a sustainable way. Critically, providing for increased public expenditure in a sustainable way seeks to ensure that incremental improvements in the funding and allocation of additional resources to support delivery of public services are maintained on a long term basis. This approach will ensure we do not...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Brexit Issues (13 Apr 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: Ireland has well established arrangements for bilateral engagement with the UK, including structures established under the Good Friday Agreement and as a result of the 2012 Joint Statement between the Taoiseach and the UK Prime Minister. On 11 April 2017 I met Joe Fitzpatrick, Scottish Minister for Parliamentary Business, who was in Dublin for a series of meetings and with whom I...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Sector Pay (13 Apr 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: 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. In my last review of the necessity for the continuing application of the measures provided for under the Acts, my decision was informed by the...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: State Assets (13 Apr 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: The Government announced its decision on the State Asset Disposal Programme in February 2012. The following month, my Department published a protocol on meetings with market participants and/or advisers in relation to any of the assets that formed part of the overall disposal programme. The protocol, which is available on my Department's website, set out the policy for future engagement...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Infrastructure and Capital Investment Programme (13 Apr 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: PPPs offer an alternative model for delivering infrastructure, that can facilitate the delivery of additional capital projects and that can be effective in particular circumstances. However, the long-term nature of the financial commitments arising under PPPs require that the use of such arrangements must be carefully planned in order to ensure that they are used to address infrastructural...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Lansdowne Road Agreement (13 Apr 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: The Deputy will appreciate that I cannot disclose the Government's negotiation position in advance of actual negotiations. No party to a negotiation, in any walk of life, would do so as this could jeopardise the outcome of the negotiation. What I can say, in broad terms, is that this Government values collective agreements and will negotiate in good faith to achieve one. We value...