Results 24,461-24,480 of 32,924 for speaker:Paschal Donohoe

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Departmental Staff (21 Mar 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: The Civil Service Arbitration Board has made its report on this matter which I have accepted.  This report was laid before the House on 10 March 2017 and is available on the Oireachtas website at .

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Departmental Staff (21 Mar 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: As the process is ongoing and we are not in a position to release further information at this point in time.

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Departmental Staff Data (21 Mar 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: In response to the Deputy's question, the subject matter of Parliamentary Question Number 270 of 23 February, 2017 did not relate to public affairs connected with my Department or to matters of administration for which I am officially responsible (including bodies under the aegis of my Department in respect of Government policy).  The question fell within the responsibilities of...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Departmental Schemes (21 Mar 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: The Revised Civil Service Spouses and Children's Pension Scheme (the "Revised Scheme") was introduced in 1984 as a result of an agreed recommendation made by General Council under the Scheme for Conciliation and Arbitration for the Civil Service. The recommendation was regarding the amendment of certain provisions of the Civil Service Spouses and Children's Contributory Pension Scheme...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Departmental Legal Costs (21 Mar 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: In response to the Deputy's question, the table outlines the total amount spent on legal advice by my Department since 2015: Year  Name Amount 2015  Philip Lee Solicitors €5,535 ByrneWallace Solicitors  €123,221 *Consultant R. Humphreys  €54,312 *Consultant C. Kennedy  €57,530 €240,598  2016  ByrneWallace...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: State Bodies (21 Mar 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: The recruitment of staff in Non-Commercial State Bodies (NCSBs) is a matter for the management of the Bodies in consultation with their parent Department in the first instance. This Department does not have a role in determining the method through which staff are recruited. It is understood that NCSBs may, if they wish, use the Public Appointments Service (PAS) for recruitment purposes.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 11 - Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (Revised)
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances (Revised)
Vote 14 - State Laboratory (Revised)
Vote 15 - Secret Service (Revised)
Vote 17 - Public Appointments Service (Revised)
Vote 18 - National Shared Services Office (Revised)
Vote 19 - Office of the Ombudsman (Revised)
Vote 39 - Office of Government Procurement (Revised) (9 Mar 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the committee for giving me an opportunity to attend today's meeting. I will speak briefly on my overall Vote before facilitating as many questions as possible. As the Chair has said, this Vote group comprises the Votes for the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, the Office of Government Procurement and the National Shared Services Office; the Votes for the offices under...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 11 - Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (Revised)
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances (Revised)
Vote 14 - State Laboratory (Revised)
Vote 15 - Secret Service (Revised)
Vote 17 - Public Appointments Service (Revised)
Vote 18 - National Shared Services Office (Revised)
Vote 19 - Office of the Ombudsman (Revised)
Vote 39 - Office of Government Procurement (Revised) (9 Mar 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the Deputy for his question and will share the figures with him. I will start, however, by making clear that all the tribunals and commissions of inquiry that took place were pieces of work that needed to be done. They include the investigation on a very important matter, whose terms of reference are currently being settled by the House. All this work needed to be done in the...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 11 - Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (Revised)
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances (Revised)
Vote 14 - State Laboratory (Revised)
Vote 15 - Secret Service (Revised)
Vote 17 - Public Appointments Service (Revised)
Vote 18 - National Shared Services Office (Revised)
Vote 19 - Office of the Ombudsman (Revised)
Vote 39 - Office of Government Procurement (Revised) (9 Mar 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: As I said to the Deputy earlier, I want to be very careful, particularly in the context of the public debate that took place recently on the setting up of a tribunal on certain disclosures and in the context of the debate taking place in the Dáil today. I wish to be very clear in recognising that there are truths in our society that need a form of inquiry. At each point of the process...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 11 - Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (Revised)
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances (Revised)
Vote 14 - State Laboratory (Revised)
Vote 15 - Secret Service (Revised)
Vote 17 - Public Appointments Service (Revised)
Vote 18 - National Shared Services Office (Revised)
Vote 19 - Office of the Ombudsman (Revised)
Vote 39 - Office of Government Procurement (Revised) (9 Mar 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: Regarding commissions of inquiry, we have structures in place to deal with the matter of legal costs. On tribunals of inquiry, this is a matter in respect of which we rely on the leadership of the person leading the tribunal. It must be acknowledged that Mr. Justice Charleton, who is leading the disclosures tribunal, has already been very clear about his view on cost. That was a decision...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 11 - Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (Revised)
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances (Revised)
Vote 14 - State Laboratory (Revised)
Vote 15 - Secret Service (Revised)
Vote 17 - Public Appointments Service (Revised)
Vote 18 - National Shared Services Office (Revised)
Vote 19 - Office of the Ombudsman (Revised)
Vote 39 - Office of Government Procurement (Revised) (9 Mar 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: Nor am I.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 11 - Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (Revised)
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances (Revised)
Vote 14 - State Laboratory (Revised)
Vote 15 - Secret Service (Revised)
Vote 17 - Public Appointments Service (Revised)
Vote 18 - National Shared Services Office (Revised)
Vote 19 - Office of the Ombudsman (Revised)
Vote 39 - Office of Government Procurement (Revised) (9 Mar 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: My anticipation of how this process and the related negotiation will develop is as follows. The Public Service Pay Commission is now in the middle of receiving submissions and meeting stakeholders. I thank its members for all their work. I thank the board and panel that has agreed to do this work for all the effort that has been put in. I asked in the terms of reference that they would...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 11 - Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (Revised)
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances (Revised)
Vote 14 - State Laboratory (Revised)
Vote 15 - Secret Service (Revised)
Vote 17 - Public Appointments Service (Revised)
Vote 18 - National Shared Services Office (Revised)
Vote 19 - Office of the Ombudsman (Revised)
Vote 39 - Office of Government Procurement (Revised) (9 Mar 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: Yes, I have asked the commission to take account of, and offer input into, public service pensions.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 11 - Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (Revised)
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances (Revised)
Vote 14 - State Laboratory (Revised)
Vote 15 - Secret Service (Revised)
Vote 17 - Public Appointments Service (Revised)
Vote 18 - National Shared Services Office (Revised)
Vote 19 - Office of the Ombudsman (Revised)
Vote 39 - Office of Government Procurement (Revised) (9 Mar 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: I am. I have the report on the review of the Act on my desk and I am considering it at the moment. I aim to publish it soon. This legislation has had a big effect. I have had lots of contact in respect of the operation of the Act. The Deputy will see when the report is published that we have had a number of submissions on how it is working and all of them were made in the spirit of...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 11 - Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (Revised)
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances (Revised)
Vote 14 - State Laboratory (Revised)
Vote 15 - Secret Service (Revised)
Vote 17 - Public Appointments Service (Revised)
Vote 18 - National Shared Services Office (Revised)
Vote 19 - Office of the Ombudsman (Revised)
Vote 39 - Office of Government Procurement (Revised) (9 Mar 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: I agree with the Deputy. Regardless of the views of some, any adjustments that I make will be in spirit of trying to make the legislation work better and I will not make changes that will reduce the transparency, details of which I have shared with the committee. The only spirit that I will approach this in is that it is an Act which is still recent and the period of implementation has been...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 11 - Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (Revised)
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances (Revised)
Vote 14 - State Laboratory (Revised)
Vote 15 - Secret Service (Revised)
Vote 17 - Public Appointments Service (Revised)
Vote 18 - National Shared Services Office (Revised)
Vote 19 - Office of the Ombudsman (Revised)
Vote 39 - Office of Government Procurement (Revised) (9 Mar 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: I have.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 11 - Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (Revised)
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances (Revised)
Vote 14 - State Laboratory (Revised)
Vote 15 - Secret Service (Revised)
Vote 17 - Public Appointments Service (Revised)
Vote 18 - National Shared Services Office (Revised)
Vote 19 - Office of the Ombudsman (Revised)
Vote 39 - Office of Government Procurement (Revised) (9 Mar 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: There is a need for us to increase capital investment within the State but we have increased such investment this year compared to a year ago by €375 million or more than 10%. We have a plan in place to sustainably increase public expenditure in capital formation over the next number of years, and, later in the year, I will make a decision on the allocation of in excess €2...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 11 - Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (Revised)
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances (Revised)
Vote 14 - State Laboratory (Revised)
Vote 15 - Secret Service (Revised)
Vote 17 - Public Appointments Service (Revised)
Vote 18 - National Shared Services Office (Revised)
Vote 19 - Office of the Ombudsman (Revised)
Vote 39 - Office of Government Procurement (Revised) (9 Mar 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: Those rules exist because of the risk in other jurisdictions where current and capital expenditure were conflated; they looked like the same thing and assets were built that ended up not delivering what citizens wanted and not delivering a return. In terms of how we deal with the matter, I want to explore the options in that regard, including the role of the European Investment Bank, EIB and...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 11 - Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (Revised)
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances (Revised)
Vote 14 - State Laboratory (Revised)
Vote 15 - Secret Service (Revised)
Vote 17 - Public Appointments Service (Revised)
Vote 18 - National Shared Services Office (Revised)
Vote 19 - Office of the Ombudsman (Revised)
Vote 39 - Office of Government Procurement (Revised) (9 Mar 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: Yes and PPPs involve what are called bullet payments, where one pays, over a longer time period, a bullet payment per annum to cover both the costs and maintenance of the project. Maintenance is an issue that does not get enough consideration. Those bullet payments can be very considerable, not just in the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport but also in the Departments of Education...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 11 - Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (Revised)
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances (Revised)
Vote 14 - State Laboratory (Revised)
Vote 15 - Secret Service (Revised)
Vote 17 - Public Appointments Service (Revised)
Vote 18 - National Shared Services Office (Revised)
Vote 19 - Office of the Ombudsman (Revised)
Vote 39 - Office of Government Procurement (Revised) (9 Mar 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: Yes, they could be but my preference, where possible, is the use of the conventional Exchequer-funded model. That delivers greater certainty with regard to future costs and the State can play a direct role in the delivery of the project. There are merits in that which should be borne in mind. We will look at this on a case by case basis. I remember that Deputy Sherlock was a formidable...