Results 3,001-3,020 of 5,132 for speaker:Trevor Ó Clochartaigh
- Seanad: Local Government Reform Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (20 Dec 2013)
Trevor Ó Clochartaigh: Will the companies be disbanded? Is the Minister saying those companies will be liquidated? This is important.
- Seanad: Local Government Reform Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (20 Dec 2013)
Trevor Ó Clochartaigh: Why not? The Minister said he had searched his heart when he developed this Bill. He said he consulted widely.
- Seanad: Local Government Reform Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (20 Dec 2013)
Trevor Ó Clochartaigh: Surely this is an integral part of the whole structure.
- Seanad: Local Government Reform Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (20 Dec 2013)
Trevor Ó Clochartaigh: The Minister has just introduced new information. I have been at public meetings in Connemara with Fóram Chonamara and with organisations who are represented by it. Their understanding was that the local development companies would remain in existence and that the work they are doing would continue, but that the cheque book would be with the county councils and they would pay the local...
- Seanad: Local Government Reform Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (20 Dec 2013)
Trevor Ó Clochartaigh: I want the Minister to clarify this. Companies have been led to believe there would be a local structure still in place and that people would be employed in local areas by that local company, albeit that the administrative and financial functions would be transferred to the county councils. Is the Minister now telling us that this will not be the case? If so, there would be serious concern...
- Seanad: Local Government Reform Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (20 Dec 2013)
Trevor Ó Clochartaigh: We have been asking for the Minister's vision.
- Seanad: Local Government Reform Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (20 Dec 2013)
Trevor Ó Clochartaigh: Yes. The Minister's officials would have been well aware of people's concerns about the issues regarding the cohesion process at the time. I am surprised the Minister is calling these companies private companies because they are not. They are companies limited by guarantee and under guidelines that were negotiated over three or four years, as far as I remember, by officials in the...
- Seanad: Local Government Reform Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (20 Dec 2013)
Trevor Ó Clochartaigh: That is a statement the Minister needs to retract because it is most unfair.
- Seanad: Local Government Reform Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (20 Dec 2013)
Trevor Ó Clochartaigh: We realise that the cohesion process, especially in the Gaeltacht areas, was an absolute disaster. The Minister knows that himself. Certainly, we need an investigation into what happened in the Gaeltacht areas and what happened to Meitheal Forbartha na Gaeltachta, MFG, in particular, and how some of the actions in that company were allowed to happen, under the auspices of the previous...
- Seanad: Local Government Reform Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (20 Dec 2013)
Trevor Ó Clochartaigh: Many calls for an investigation into that have been made.
- Seanad: Local Government Reform Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (20 Dec 2013)
Trevor Ó Clochartaigh: I call on the Minister-----
- Seanad: Local Government Reform Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (20 Dec 2013)
Trevor Ó Clochartaigh: The allegations have been made by many people into exactly why-----
- Seanad: Local Government Reform Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (20 Dec 2013)
Trevor Ó Clochartaigh: I am not going to do that. It is important to find out. Have the audits done by the Department shown up any issues regarding documentation being kept or board minutes etc., the way decisions were made, the way moneys were spent, etc., on the various programmes? It is about time the Minister sanctioned a full investigation into that issue. The result of that, the reason it is important now...
- Seanad: Local Government Reform Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (20 Dec 2013)
Trevor Ó Clochartaigh: We do not have that structure because it was taken away when MFG was gone. Will the Minister clarify where the Gaeltacht areas sit in his new vision for local development? At the moment the funds are being allocated through contiguous companies, including FORUM Connemara in Letterfrack and Comhair na nOileán, etc., in various Gaeltacht areas. We have concerns about centralising power...
- Seanad: Local Government Reform Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (20 Dec 2013)
Trevor Ó Clochartaigh: The Minister should tell me. He seems to have all the information at his behest.
- Seanad: Local Government Reform Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (20 Dec 2013)
Trevor Ó Clochartaigh: I know the Minister is only trying to wind me up by talking about vested interests. For the record, I do not have any vested interest in the area. In a previous life I worked with a partnership company in Connemara, Cumas Teoranta. I do not work for the company any longer so I do not have any vested interest to declare.
- Seanad: Local Government Reform Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (20 Dec 2013)
Trevor Ó Clochartaigh: The Minister is very welcome. I thank him for being so interested in my background.
- Seanad: Local Government Reform Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (20 Dec 2013)
Trevor Ó Clochartaigh: That points to something-----
- Seanad: Local Government Reform Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (20 Dec 2013)
Trevor Ó Clochartaigh: It was, given that the Minister cast aspersions on my character.
- Seanad: Local Government Reform Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (20 Dec 2013)
Trevor Ó Clochartaigh: I had to clarify the matter.