Results 27,081-27,100 of 32,961 for speaker:Paschal Donohoe

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Estimates for Public Services 2015: Vote 31 - Transport, Tourism and Sport (30 Sep 2015)

Paschal Donohoe: It is a mixture. I am clear within my own Department what my priorities are. When I came into office those objectives were published. I meet every month with the management boards of the Department and we review where we are with the priorities that we have set. That is partly by virtue of necessity because there are so many different things going on within my Department that I have to be...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Estimates for Public Services 2015: Vote 31 - Transport, Tourism and Sport (30 Sep 2015)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the Vice Chairman.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Estimates for Public Services 2015: Vote 31 - Transport, Tourism and Sport (30 Sep 2015)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the Deputy and will reply to the questions he has put to me. The first one is on the two roads that the Deputy referred to, the Shannon Foynes road and the Adare bypass road. I know as well as the Deputy where those projects stand at the moment. They both face journeys in the planning process and so on, but I believe it is important that yesterday I and the Government made clear...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Estimates for Public Services 2015: Vote 31 - Transport, Tourism and Sport (30 Sep 2015)

Paschal Donohoe: As the Deputy knows, there is always blue murder about different matters. That is just the nature of the jobs we do. If one looks at the support for the festival programmes and at the support that many of the larger festivals get, one will see that the funding they receive from the Department through Fáilte Ireland has been substantially reduced. We are challenging festival and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Estimates for Public Services 2015: Vote 31 - Transport, Tourism and Sport (30 Sep 2015)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the Deputy for raising a number of points. First, I will deal the capital spend and the percentage we are investing in regional and local roads. Out of €10 billion programme that I announced yesterday afternoon, some €2.4 billion is for regional and local roads. When I was drawing up the announcement that was made yesterday, I first gave priority to rebalancing our...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Estimates for Public Services 2015: Vote 31 - Transport, Tourism and Sport (30 Sep 2015)

Paschal Donohoe: We have made additional funding available to support longer advertising campaigns through Tourism Ireland. We are trying to get additional vacations and holidays into Ireland at points of the year when we have the capacity to facilitate them. I will explain how it is working at the moment. I suppose we are in the off-season, or the off-shoulder period, now. We will have to see how it is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Estimates for Public Services 2015: Vote 31 - Transport, Tourism and Sport (30 Sep 2015)

Paschal Donohoe: Yes, we will. We are coming off a decent base in terms of the breadth of indicators we have and how specific some of them are. There is an opportunity to do this more effectively in the future. As we are doing it we will also need a bit more clarity regarding the adjudication of the Oireachtas on the specific measurable and relevant columns.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Estimates for Public Services 2015: Vote 31 - Transport, Tourism and Sport (30 Sep 2015)

Paschal Donohoe: The committee already has a copy of my statement. We have probably covered the second session fully already, maybe more so than the first.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Estimates for Public Services 2015: Vote 31 - Transport, Tourism and Sport (30 Sep 2015)

Paschal Donohoe: We have to start somewhere. We have covered all of that. As the committee already has a copy of the statement and it has been circulated, if I may, I might make reference to one or two areas that were not covered in our earlier session.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Estimates for Public Services 2015: Vote 31 - Transport, Tourism and Sport (30 Sep 2015)

Paschal Donohoe: I might say a word about aviation and maritime, and then a bit about sports, maybe, for four or five minutes, because these are very important areas which were not covered earlier to the degree one would want. On aviation, I draw the committee's attention to the fact that we published the country's first ever national aviation policy in August. It contains 73 actions, all of which reflect...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Motor Industry (30 Sep 2015)

Paschal Donohoe: ​The recent disclosure by Volkswagen pertaining to the emission testing of their vehicles is a matter of serious concern. In order to determine how many vehicles certified in the EU may have been affected the EU Commission will be liaising with national type approval bodies in the coming days. Issues surrounding the recent revelations will also be discussed by the relevant Member...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Driver Test Centres (30 Sep 2015)

Paschal Donohoe: I have no plans to change the regulations setting fees for driving tests, including repeat tests, at the present time. In regard to the figures requested by the Deputy, the operation of the driver testing service is the statutory responsibility of the Road Safety Authority.  I have therefore referred the question to the Authority for direct reply.  I would ask the Deputy to...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Motor Insurance Regulation (30 Sep 2015)

Paschal Donohoe: ​CSO statistics show that, as at August 2015, the cost of motor insurance remains 6% below the prevailing level in 2003.  However, the increase over the past year has been 24%.  This appears to reflect the end of a period of intense price competition between insurers which may have resulted in underwriting losses in some cases. The insurance market is a competitive...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Public Transport (30 Sep 2015)

Paschal Donohoe: I propose to take Questions Nos. 173 and 174 together.​ The issues raised are matters for the National Transport Authority (NTA) and I have forwarded the Deputy's questions to the NTA for direct reply.  Please advise my private office if you do not receive a response within ten working days.

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Tourism Policy (29 Sep 2015)

Paschal Donohoe: ​Legislation with regard to the functions of Local Authorities is, in the first instance, a matter for my colleague the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government. I understand there is no specific legislative provision in local government law that gives responsibility to local authorities for local tourism development. However, section 66 of the Local Government Act...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Roads Maintenance Funding (29 Sep 2015)

Paschal Donohoe: ​The improvement and maintenance of regional and local roads is the statutory responsibility of each local authority, in accordance with the provisions of Section 13 of the Roads Act 1993. Works on those roads are funded from local authorities' own resources supplemented by State road grants.  The initial selection and prioritisation of works to be funded is also a matter for the...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Taxi Regulations (29 Sep 2015)

Paschal Donohoe: The regulation of the small public service vehicle industry, including vehicle age limits, is a matter for the National Transport Authority (NTA) under the provisions of the Taxi Regulation Act 2013. I have referred your question to the NTA for direct reply. Please advise my private office if you do not receive a response within 10 working days.

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Road Openings (29 Sep 2015)

Paschal Donohoe: As Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, I have responsibility for overall policy and funding in relation to the national roads programme.  The planning, design and implementation of individual road projects is a matter for Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), formerly the National Roads Authority (NRA) under the Roads Acts 1993 to 2015 in conjunction with the local authorities...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Road Network (29 Sep 2015)

Paschal Donohoe: As Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, I have responsibility for overall policy and funding in relation to the national roads programme.  The planning, design and implementation of individual road projects is a matter for Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), formerly the National Roads Authority (NRA) under the Roads Acts 1993 to 2015 in conjunction with the local authorities...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Driver Test Centres (29 Sep 2015)

Paschal Donohoe: The operation of the National Driver Licensing Service, including the choice of locations for offices, is the statutory responsibility of the Road Safety Authority.  I have therefore referred the question to the Authority for direct reply.  I would ask the Deputy to contact my office if a response has not been received within ten days.