Results 461-480 of 1,022,920 for in 'Dáil debates' OR (speaker:Tom Kitt OR speaker:Paul McAuliffe) in 'Committee meetings'
- Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Education Costs (23 May 2024)
Patrick O'Donovan: All options will be on the table when I discuss this matter with the Ministers, Deputies Donohoe and McGrath. Regarding Deputy Boyd Barrett's comment about the 19th century, if we had a 19th-century approach to third level education, I would never have had the chance to go to university because I did not go to a private school. That is the reality. This country has been transformed through...
- Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Further and Higher Education (23 May 2024)
Further and Higher Education
- Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Further and Higher Education (23 May 2024)
Brendan Smith: 7. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the major capital projects that will be progressed this year in the further education sector; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23273/24]
- Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Further and Higher Education (23 May 2024)
Brendan Smith: I congratulate the Minister on his appointment and wish him well in his new role. I very much welcome the emphasis that has been placed on the development of further education since the Government took office in June 2020. I spoke to the Minister's predecessor on many occasions about the opportunities that exist to develop the further education sector on an all-Ireland, cross-Border basis....
- Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Further and Higher Education (23 May 2024)
Patrick O'Donovan: I thank the Deputy for his warm words. In 2022, two new capital infrastructure programmes were launched to provide for significant investment in further education and training, FET. These programmes are the FET college of the future major projects fund and the strategic infrastructure upgrade fund. The college of the future major projects fund will support projects that can help drive...
- Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Further and Higher Education (23 May 2024)
Brendan Smith: I thank the Minister for his reply. He would be very welcome to visit Cavan Institute, which has been a very successful institute since its establishment. I was very much involved with Cavan Institute as I was the chair of the first board of management of the college. I was involved in having the initial buildings and accommodation provided. It was actually the first dedicated PLC college...
- Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Further and Higher Education (23 May 2024)
Patrick O'Donovan: I agree with the Deputy. One of the statistics that bears testimony to what he is saying is that in a very short period, the budget for FET has grown from €5 million to €65 million. This comes from the creation of the Department, which was a commitment in the programme for Government. Let us be realistic, when all of this was part of the remit of the Department of Education,...
- Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Further and Higher Education (23 May 2024)
Brendan Smith: I can assure the Minister that Cavan and Monaghan ETB will work very diligently on this. It has put together a very strong business case to advance this accommodation proposal. I do not think that we in this House can emphasise enough the importance of the further education sector. Over the years I have seen many young people who may have come from communities where there was not a...
- Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 35 - Army Pensions
Vote 36 - Defence
Report on the Accounts of the Public Services 2022
Chapter 12: Stock Management in the Defence Forces (23 May 2024) Paul McAuliffe: I thank our guests for being here today. I will continue the line of questioning started by Deputy Murphy. A number of her questions point to one of the structural issues in the way that funding and the accountability of funding is structured in the Defence Forces. Clearly, Ms McCrum is the Accounting Officer and we ask her questions when she comes before us. Many people in the Defence...
- Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 35 - Army Pensions
Vote 36 - Defence
Report on the Accounts of the Public Services 2022
Chapter 12: Stock Management in the Defence Forces (23 May 2024) Paul McAuliffe: -----is really fundamental and we should avoid mistakes made by other countries. However, there is a feeling that more opportunity or more support should be given to military leadership around decision-making processes. I refer to things like recruitment and retention, as mentioned by a previous Deputy, decisions on capital purchases and the allocation of resources for cybersecurity. Can...
- Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 35 - Army Pensions
Vote 36 - Defence
Report on the Accounts of the Public Services 2022
Chapter 12: Stock Management in the Defence Forces (23 May 2024) Paul McAuliffe: Does Ms McCrum accept that the Chief of Staff is in a difficult position? Other agencies of government - often to the detriment of Government policy or the Minister - advocate in public for their service or improvements in their service. They may make a public case against or to the Department. The Chief of Staff is not in that same position. The Chief of Staff is in a much more difficult...
- Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 35 - Army Pensions
Vote 36 - Defence
Report on the Accounts of the Public Services 2022
Chapter 12: Stock Management in the Defence Forces (23 May 2024) Paul McAuliffe: I have seen many civil servants advocating for change across the whole system. I am not saying they have to be party political. The military leadership - let us not make it personal to the Chief of Staff - are in a more difficult situation to advocate for their share of the cake compared with other national agencies. They are entirely dependent on the Department's senior management to make...
- Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 35 - Army Pensions
Vote 36 - Defence
Report on the Accounts of the Public Services 2022
Chapter 12: Stock Management in the Defence Forces (23 May 2024) Paul McAuliffe: That may be the case for the last number of years but for a significant period of time, we allowed recruitment to get to a point where it was a critical threat. I think everybody can accept that. Recruitment and retention dropped for lots of reasons and issues. My point is that many people in the Defence Forces argue that that would not have happened if those who are responsible for...
- Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 35 - Army Pensions
Vote 36 - Defence
Report on the Accounts of the Public Services 2022
Chapter 12: Stock Management in the Defence Forces (23 May 2024) Paul McAuliffe: There is a greater responsibility on Ms McCrum, as Secretary General, and on her team in the Department to ensure that the demands, wishes and expressions of the operational side are expressed than on their counterparts in any other Department. In any other Department, it would be more appropriate for me to have a direct conversation with the line operator. It would be more appropriate for...
- Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 35 - Army Pensions
Vote 36 - Defence
Report on the Accounts of the Public Services 2022
Chapter 12: Stock Management in the Defence Forces (23 May 2024) Paul McAuliffe: I am reminding the Secretary General that there is an additional responsibility on her in this area. I believe some of the issues, particularly around recruitment, have arisen in recent years - not during Ms McCrum's tenure - because, at a senior level in the Department, the case was not made earlier. The same point can be made in respect of pay issues. Simple changes were made by this...
- Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 35 - Army Pensions
Vote 36 - Defence
Report on the Accounts of the Public Services 2022
Chapter 12: Stock Management in the Defence Forces (23 May 2024) Paul McAuliffe: Let me move on to the independent review group's report on the Defence Forces. I suppose in its politest form it showed that there was a kind of tough-man approach within the organisation and that this strong or macho kind of culture was too prevalent. Ms McCrum might have a different view but that was the view in general terms. I would like for a moment to consider families and people...
- Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 35 - Army Pensions
Vote 36 - Defence
Report on the Accounts of the Public Services 2022
Chapter 12: Stock Management in the Defence Forces (23 May 2024) Paul McAuliffe: I refer to tours of duty abroad, for example.
- Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 35 - Army Pensions
Vote 36 - Defence
Report on the Accounts of the Public Services 2022
Chapter 12: Stock Management in the Defence Forces (23 May 2024) Paul McAuliffe: Many feel that not enough cognisance is given to that. That was not a specific term used by the independent review group. Based on representations from members of families who have spoken to me about it, this is an issue. They feel powerless and do not feel supported. They feel in many ways they are also subjected to an approach whereby they should get on with it, pull up their bootstraps...
- Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 35 - Army Pensions
Vote 36 - Defence
Report on the Accounts of the Public Services 2022
Chapter 12: Stock Management in the Defence Forces (23 May 2024) Paul McAuliffe: We await the implementation of those family-friendly policies and will judge the Department on it.
- Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 35 - Army Pensions
Vote 36 - Defence
Report on the Accounts of the Public Services 2022
Chapter 12: Stock Management in the Defence Forces (23 May 2024) Paul McAuliffe: We will be the judge of that when we have the time to do so. I thank Ms McCrum.