Results 441-460 of 5,746 for speaker:Gerard Craughwell

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (14 Feb 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: I read this morning that we are now down to one ship to patrol our western shores. That is deeply worrying. I would like to have a debate in this House on what I call the Atlantic fleet. I believe the assets that exist off the west coast of Ireland and the west coasts of France, Spain and Portugal right the whole way down and whole way up north to Norway, Finland, etc, should be patrolled...

Seanad: Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: If the mayor is ultimately the man who carries the can, where does that leave the CEO?

Seanad: Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: I thank the Minister of State for his reply, but it raised more questions than it provided answers. We are heading into new territory. These are as yet untested waters. If the mayor is accountable to the chamber within the local authority but the accounting officer is the chief executive officer, there is the probability, I would think, of conflict between the two offices from time to time...

Seanad: Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: I am not trying to throw a spanner in the works for the Minister of State, but it is really important that we empower a mayor to be accountable to his representatives in the chamber and, ultimately, to the people who elect him. I have always held the view that the chief executive officer or accounting officer is answerable only to the Minister of State's Department. They are not really...

Seanad: Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: I have been on the ground with the Minister of State in Limerick. I know his commitment to the city. I also know he is anxious to get this through and see a directly elected mayor.I want to put that on record. The Minister of State is a true-blue Limerick man. I will give him that. The issue I am talking about has not arisen. I am not trying to be negative. It is our job in this House...

Seanad: Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: I support Senator Boyhan's amendment. As he rightly pointed out, I spent quite a lot of my life in Limerick. I owe my second-chance education to Limerick. I often remember working with the Minister of State on various projects in Limerick city down through the years. Recently, I had the pleasure of going back there and visiting St. Nessan's Community College and seeing an unbelievable...

Seanad: Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: No, not Thomond, South Hill.

Seanad: Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: Then there is the old Krups factory. The work that is going on there with Eimear Brophy, Paul Patton, and other such people, is just unbelievable. As a politician in Limerick, I know the Minister of State used to push various projects himself. He was quite a strong voice in Limerick Senior College back in the day when I was there, as were some of this colleagues. I would not like to take...

Seanad: Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: I know the Minister of State as a man of his word. The problem is not him; the problem is those who come after him. As he knows, we are all in transient positions here. We come, we go. Putting what we are requesting here on a statutory footing in the legislation leaves no ambiguity and no room for anybody to say that is not what was meant or we have the power to shift that or we can...

Seanad: Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: I second Senator Boyhan's amendment. The Minister of State and I both remember the bad times in Limerick. It is now one of the best cities in the country. A huge amount of work was carried out jointly by the Garda, local and national politicians and the education and training board, formerly the vocational education committee. It is now a model city in so many ways. I love the place and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Large-scale Capital Projects: Transport Infrastructure Ireland (14 Feb 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: I welcome Mr. Walsh and Mr. O'Neill. I thank them for being here. Having listened to Mr. Walsh talking about allocation and budget, will he tell us how other countries operate with major capital projects like the those we are talking about? With regard to annual budgets, I do not know how Mr. Walsh as the chief executive officer is expected to plan five, ten or 15 years into the future....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Large-scale Capital Projects: Transport Infrastructure Ireland (14 Feb 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: I will come back to Mr. Walsh in a moment. While it is for the committee to decide at a later stage, I believe we should look for an expert to come in here and look at multi-annual funding. When we are drafting the budget for 2025 we should look at all of the projects that TII currently has on hand and the cost of those projects and then add an addendum to allow TII to expand into new...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Large-scale Capital Projects: Transport Infrastructure Ireland (14 Feb 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: I live in the Leopardstown area and I drive down the Dundrum bypass many times. People always remark to me that it is the most expensive piece of road in Europe-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Large-scale Capital Projects: Transport Infrastructure Ireland (14 Feb 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: Yes. Because TII is responsible for major infrastructure projects like this, has Mr. Walsh any explanation as to why projects in Ireland seem to cost multiples of what they cost in other countries?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Large-scale Capital Projects: Transport Infrastructure Ireland (14 Feb 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Large-scale Capital Projects: Transport Infrastructure Ireland (14 Feb 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: Yes, that is a different ball game.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Large-scale Capital Projects: Transport Infrastructure Ireland (14 Feb 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: The cost of land and the planning appeals and all of that. I am glad that Mr. Walsh has put this on the record because it is a constant thing that is thrown at me by members of the public "Why are we paying ten times more?" On the western rail corridor, which I am sure the witnesses are well used to, I still believe we should have a train from Letterkenny to Cork, Waterford or Dublin, and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Large-scale Capital Projects: Transport Infrastructure Ireland (14 Feb 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: I am sorry, I took it that it did. I will take that out.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Large-scale Capital Projects: Transport Infrastructure Ireland (14 Feb 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: Yes. TII deals with metro and Luas. The Galway light rail system has been on the boil since I was a boy in Salthill and is still on the boil. The bypass is constantly being chucked out. We get so far and-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Large-scale Capital Projects: Transport Infrastructure Ireland (14 Feb 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: Is it light rail and not metro?