Results 4,061-4,080 of 16,478 for speaker:Tommy Broughan

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (13 Apr 2017)

Tommy Broughan: I welcome the Minister and his officials. I echo what Deputy Chambers was saying about the budgetary oversight office. We had a commitment in the programme for Government that it would be up and running, yet we are heading into the second of three agreed budgets for the current Administration and the office is still not there. I share the Chairman's frustration. On the stability...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (13 Apr 2017)

Tommy Broughan: The funding for it is included in the budget but the Ceann Comhairle would not let me ask the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, a question about how it was being spent. That is another issue.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (13 Apr 2017)

Tommy Broughan: Let us move on to the fiscal rules. With the projected balance and so on, 2019 is going to be a fantastic year for whomever is lucky enough to be Minister for Finance - it could well be Deputy Noonan still, heading for a decade in office. As we achieve this structural balance and move away from the convergence criteria, does that not give us a significant amount of leg room, even before...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (13 Apr 2017)

Tommy Broughan: Can the chief economist give us the figure?

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (13 Apr 2017)

Tommy Broughan: Our ultimate job is advise the Department about what we want to achieve in 2018. At the moment the stability programme update, SPU, is still fairly dismal. We are still in a stranglehold and that is the way we feel as a committee. Can we somehow use the positive figures that will have an impact in 2019 and backdate them for ourselves in order that there is a better and more expansive...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (13 Apr 2017)

Tommy Broughan: I agree with having a motorway to the north west and spreading development etc. We should adjust our commitment to build metro north in 2026 and have it earlier in 2022 or whatever. Portugal and Spain seem to be able to get away with capital adjustments. Spain has built about 20 metros in the past ten or 15 years. Can we take advantage of capital in the same way?

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (13 Apr 2017)

Tommy Broughan: I heard the Minister's speech.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (13 Apr 2017)

Tommy Broughan: On page 24 of the SPU the composition of debt was mentioned. The levels of debt and the debt-to-revenue ratio are still very significant. I have asked the Minister a question on this matter two or three times. I am looking at the 60% between the fixed rate treasury and amortising bonds and the floating rate bonds. Should we take advantage of the current interest rate situation to...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (13 Apr 2017)

Tommy Broughan: Yes, I got it.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (13 Apr 2017)

Tommy Broughan: The Minister, former Deputy Pat Rabbitte and I were seated at the back of the Dáil when we heard about the blanket bank guarantee and the three of us understood what it meant. The difference was that the former Deputy and I did not vote for it but the Minister's party and Fianna Fáil carried it. That is the part of the history, is that not correct? The Minister for Finance...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (13 Apr 2017)

Tommy Broughan: I was, yes, and I would have kept them on that route.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (13 Apr 2017)

Tommy Broughan: No, while there might have been certain people who drove the matter, it was actually the other way around, Minister.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (13 Apr 2017)

Tommy Broughan: I think I was actually, as well as another personality who has a very elevated status in the country at the moment, and one or two other people.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (13 Apr 2017)

Tommy Broughan: They did indeed.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (13 Apr 2017)

Tommy Broughan: Yes, and he wore the green shirt when we would not put it on. We wore the green shirt actually.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Minister for Finance (13 Apr 2017)

Tommy Broughan: That is the history, Cathaoirleach.

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Northern Ireland (13 Apr 2017)

Tommy Broughan: 23. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the status of the implementation of the PEACE IGV 2014 - 2020 programme; if the various programmes under the four specific objectives have commenced; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18701/17]

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Expenditure Data (13 Apr 2017)

Tommy Broughan: 30. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform his Department's current approach to expenditure risk profiling; the way in which this information may be communicated to the budgetary oversight committee and to Dáil Éireann; the way in which this approach is being applied to demand led public expenditure schemes in 2017; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18702/17]

Garda Commissioner: Motion [Private Members] (12 Apr 2017)

Tommy Broughan: I am delighted to have an opportunity to speak briefly on the motion and I thank Sinn Féin for bringing it forward. For many of our constituents, confidence in An Garda Síochána, the revelations on the Garda MAT tests statistics prompted by the reports by David Labanyi in The Irish Timesand the subsequent revelations on illegal convictions of 14,700 drivers were the last...

Other Questions: Passport Applications (12 Apr 2017)

Tommy Broughan: 32. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the supports he is providing to the Passport Office to assist in the speedy processing of the increasing numbers of passport applications; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18002/17]