Results 4,061-4,080 of 35,549 for speaker:Pearse Doherty

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Pearse Doherty: I will respond.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Pearse Doherty: I want to make this point and will finish on it, because the Minister has again tried to play the man instead of the ball. The Minister for Health has a project that has run out of control. We have now spent €1.7 billion on it. It may be more, depending on the sorting out of the claims. We were not the ones who appointed BAM. We are the ones who tried to bring in legislation in...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Pearse Doherty: I did not.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Pearse Doherty: I asked what is another million or tens of millions? The approach the Minister is taking is a hands-off approach.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Pearse Doherty: The Minister has done this so many times.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Pearse Doherty: I would like to make a concluding remark. There are people who were not here. I made it very clear that I was not calling into question the competence of the board. I made it clear that in relation to-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Pearse Doherty: No, I have not.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Pearse Doherty: I said they are not experts in ventilation and I would not expect them to be. The question I have is: Did they get a report from experts to actually give them a price or a timeframe?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Pearse Doherty: Nobody would expect them to be experts in ventilation systems.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Pearse Doherty: You should be able to answer. I asked why you did not not ask them that. This is the problem. You are asleep at the wheel.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Secondment: Minister for Health (22 Jun 2023)

Pearse Doherty: You should ask them that. You are the Minister for Health. These are fair questions. If I was Minister for Health, I would be asking them those questions.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Investment Funds (Resumed): Irish Mortgage Holders Organisation (21 Jun 2023)

Pearse Doherty: I thank Ms Irwin and Mr. Byrne. They are powerful advocates on behalf of themselves and their families and also on behalf of tens of thousands of people who are unfortunately in a similar position to them. There is a term that has now become more familiar to many people, which is mortgage prisoners. They are people who have been sold to the vulture funds who are not able to escape from...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Investment Funds (Resumed): Irish Mortgage Holders Organisation (21 Jun 2023)

Pearse Doherty: Mr. Byrne has seen an annual increase of over €8,000 compared with last year.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Investment Funds (Resumed): Irish Mortgage Holders Organisation (21 Jun 2023)

Pearse Doherty: Yet Mr. Byrne has not missed a payment, has not done anything wrong, has not been one of these strategic defaulters or anything like that. Is that before the interest rate hike that is expected to come this month?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Investment Funds (Resumed): Irish Mortgage Holders Organisation (21 Jun 2023)

Pearse Doherty: Mr. Byrne is still waiting on the letter so he is expecting that to go further.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Investment Funds (Resumed): Irish Mortgage Holders Organisation (21 Jun 2023)

Pearse Doherty: Obviously the European Central Bank has signalled a number of other interest rate hikes. There are obviously people who can switch. They are in the claws of the vultures. We try to send out a message to them to get advice, to go to the Money Advice & Budgeting Service and the Irish Mortgage Holders Organisation, and look to see what their options are. I was just looking at some of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Investment Funds (Resumed): Irish Mortgage Holders Organisation (21 Jun 2023)

Pearse Doherty: That frustrates me for a number of reasons. I have written to all the main banks. I have also written to the Governor of the Central Bank. There is an absolute moral obligation on these banks to create a pathway for people to be reintegrated back into mainstream lending. What happened in the past has to be undone now. Banks have to create a pathway. For me, Permanent TSB has a...