Results 2,521-2,540 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton
- Other Questions: Brexit Issues (22 Mar 2018)
Joan Burton: 10. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform his plans to maximise the impact of the European Structural and Investment Funds supports in the context of the challenges of Brexit; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10865/18]
- Other Questions: Brexit Issues (22 Mar 2018)
Joan Burton: Will the Minister set out how the Government proposes to maximise the European Structural and Investment Funds supports in the context of the challenges of Brexit. I am particularly interested in the development of ports. No matter how the Border issue is resolved, we hope there will be no significant changes, but it has not yet been settled. It is clear, for instance, that ports such as...
- Other Questions: Brexit Issues (22 Mar 2018)
Joan Burton: Will the Minister say what plans have been made to improve the investments in ports, particularly Dublin, Rosslare and Cork, over and beyond what is contained in the Ireland 2040 document? Notwithstanding all of the publicity around it, the document does not really explain in detail what the proposals are. Post-Brexit, we must have far more direct transportation links between Ireland and...
- Other Questions: Brexit Issues (22 Mar 2018)
Joan Burton: Has the Minister had discussions with the European Commission on additional allocations of funds for Ireland? Obviously, the status of Ireland, given its economic growth rate, etc., has changed. Nonetheless, Brexit will pose an enormous economic challenge to the country and also mean that access to our markets via the United Kingdom may no longer be as easy as it once was. We are hoping...
- Other Questions: Data Protection (22 Mar 2018)
Joan Burton: 9. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform his plans for the further rollout of the public services card; his further plans to protect the privacy of persons using the card; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10869/18]
- Other Questions: Data Protection (22 Mar 2018)
Joan Burton: I want to ask the Minister, now that his Department is running the public services card project under the strategic communications strategy, how he proposes to reassure ordinary people across the country who use the public services card efficiently that their data are safe and protected and will not be handed on to other bodies.
- Other Questions: Data Protection (22 Mar 2018)
Joan Burton: I was the Minister responsible for introducing the public services card. Ireland spends about €20 billion a year on social welfare payments to people. The public services card has enabled a much better quality of service, with greater speed and effectiveness. This applies particularly to the free travel enjoyed by pensioners and the disabled. People can now do their business with a...
- Other Questions: Data Protection (22 Mar 2018)
Joan Burton: In this strategic communications, spin-driven Government the Minister would be well advised to rethink what is happening reputationally to the public services card. It is extremely important to people who are using it, particularly our pensioners for their travelling needs, and others who are using it for a range of services. It is particularly important in terms of the €20 billion...
- Other Questions: Data Protection (22 Mar 2018)
Joan Burton: The changes are three months late.
- Other Questions: Data Protection (22 Mar 2018)
Joan Burton: I would not boast about social welfare payments.
- Other Questions: Data Protection (22 Mar 2018)
Joan Burton: The payments are three months late. The Government is cheating people out of three months of payments.
- Other Questions: National Development Plan (22 Mar 2018)
Joan Burton: 6. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if the cap of 10% of the NDP being funded by PPPs at a time of historic low interest rates in respect of direct Exchequer borrowing has been abolished; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10867/18]
- Other Questions: National Development Plan (22 Mar 2018)
Joan Burton: I welcome the fact the Minister's Department has indicated it will review the question of public private partnerships, PPPs. We had PPPs during the years of collapse, and certainly in the years from 2011 to 2014, because it was one of the few ways of borrowing money for desperately needed infrastructure in this country and of keeping the economy afloat, because we could not borrow. However,...
- Other Questions: National Development Plan (22 Mar 2018)
Joan Burton: I wonder if the Minister or his Department have had the chance to read the Parliamentary Budget Office's overview of public private partnerships in Ireland. What it says about value for money is very clear. The value for money of PPPs is difficult to assess until the PPP itself has been in place for several years. We know this from the example of some toll roads where the private sector is...
- Other Questions: National Development Plan (22 Mar 2018)
Joan Burton: I referenced it.
- Other Questions: National Development Plan (22 Mar 2018)
Joan Burton: As a matter of record, the priority question that I submitted to the Minister was in fact about the national development plan but guess what? His Department refused it, and it was posted to the Taoiseach. Perhaps the Minister will check this. As a consequence, I wondered which element of the national development plan I could ask this Minister about. He accepted the question I thought...
- Other Questions: National Development Plan (22 Mar 2018)
Joan Burton: Then Deputy Donohoe should not say we did not ask the question.
- Other Questions: National Development Plan (22 Mar 2018)
Joan Burton: We did. The questions were refused.
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Private Partnerships (22 Mar 2018)
Joan Burton: 5. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the steps he has taken to ensure minimal disruption to existing PPPs being carried out by companies (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10866/18]
- Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Public Private Partnerships (22 Mar 2018)
Joan Burton: What steps is the Minister taking to ensure there will be minimal disruption and loss to the State in respect of public private partnerships and a number of significant PPP companies, given that Carillion has collapsed and Capita has severe financial difficulties? How will he protect the State's and the public's interest in the context of the difficulties of these companies?