Results 5,541-5,560 of 6,051 for speaker:Paul McAuliffe

Public Accounts Committee: 2019 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 – Employment Affairs and Social Protection
Chapter 4 – Control over Welfare Payments (12 Nov 2020)

Paul McAuliffe: I refer to the issue of supplementary welfare allowances and the controls that are in place. Anecdotally, I receive many different queries from the public about how they are treated differently. Obviously, a huge element of discretion is needed, but that also implies that a huge level of control is also needed within the Department. I wonder if the witnesses can talk about how that is...

Public Accounts Committee: 2019 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 – Employment Affairs and Social Protection
Chapter 4 – Control over Welfare Payments (12 Nov 2020)

Paul McAuliffe: In terms of training and criteria for those staff, is that something that is provided that could be provided to the committee?

Public Accounts Committee: 2019 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 – Employment Affairs and Social Protection
Chapter 4 – Control over Welfare Payments (12 Nov 2020)

Paul McAuliffe: I know that for citizens with bereavement costs or costs associated with a burial, for example, it can be difficult for some families where estrangement is a factor. The welfare officer requires that person, often the person who is left caring for the older relative, to act almost as liaison with all siblings in the entire family, regardless of whether there is estrangement in place. That...

Public Accounts Committee: 2019 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 – Employment Affairs and Social Protection
Chapter 4 – Control over Welfare Payments (12 Nov 2020)

Paul McAuliffe: Like all the Deputies, I acknowledge the huge effort and work that was done. However, I received assurances a number of weeks ago that those payments would be made in a number of weeks. I ask, therefore, that everything be done in order for that to be done, particularly before Christmas. What is the average wait time for PUP claims to be processed under the new level 5 restrictions? How...

Public Accounts Committee: 2019 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 – Employment Affairs and Social Protection
Chapter 4 – Control over Welfare Payments (12 Nov 2020)

Paul McAuliffe: I have had some anecdotal evidence of people who were in receipt of PUP earlier in the year, and when the new level 5 restrictions came in, on this occasion they were declined for PUP because of PRSI contributions. There seems to be some difference there between the two, and I wonder if the Department is keeping an eye on that. Is it something that is a live issue for it? What the...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Covid-19 Pandemic (12 Nov 2020)

Paul McAuliffe: 40. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport his views on whether public transport providers can cope with demand in the remaining weeks of level 5 restrictions at only 25% capacity; his plans to provide extra services on Dublin Bus or BusConnects routes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34823/20]

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Light Rail Projects (12 Nov 2020)

Paul McAuliffe: 46. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the status of metro north; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35427/20]

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Light Rail Projects (12 Nov 2020)

Paul McAuliffe: 119. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will consider bringing forward the construction of the Luas to Finglas route in the national development plan; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26667/20]

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Supplementary) (12 Nov 2020)

Paul McAuliffe: I propose that I take two minutes, Deputy Murnane O'Connor takes two minutes and we give the Minister one minute. The Chair might give him a bit of leeway on it.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Supplementary) (12 Nov 2020)

Paul McAuliffe: To return to the issue of local authorities, the €900 million commercial rates waiver has been very significant at a time when local authorities have been hugely impacted by Covid, both in terms of spend and reduced income. In some local authorities, rates are not the same percentage of income that they might be in smaller counties. I name Dublin County Council. I hope the Minister...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Supplementary) (12 Nov 2020)

Paul McAuliffe: The Estimates reference €520 million from the local property tax fund. I am unsure whether it is the method I would have use to raise the local property tax, but many properties are paying no local property tax and there is unfairness to that. When will the review come? The issue is around the rebalancing or redistribution of rates outside the larger local authorities, outside...

Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2020: Second Stage (11 Nov 2020)

Paul McAuliffe: We are 50 days away from when the UK may leave the Single Market and customs union and the end of the transition period. I echo the Minister’s comments where he hopes the provisions of this Bill are never required. Ultimately, an agreement is in the best interests of all of these islands and the peoples on them. One reads the provisions of the Bill more in sadness than in anger....

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 6 - Expenditure under a Maintenance Contract
2019 Appropriation Accounts
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (11 Nov 2020)

Paul McAuliffe: I thank the witnesses for participating. I do not have many OPW sites in my constituency. I will return to that point in a moment, but one site that we are proud of is the National Botanic Gardens. It is a great local facility that has been used a great deal during the pandemic. I commend the OPW on the way the gardens are managed. I do not expect the witnesses to have an answer now,...

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 6 - Expenditure under a Maintenance Contract
2019 Appropriation Accounts
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (11 Nov 2020)

Paul McAuliffe: My colleague, Deputy Devlin, spoke about the impact of Covid and how it might make the Civil Service consider office space and so on. I am afraid that there will only be a debate between central Dublin and those counties outside Dublin. However, there is an important sector in the middle, namely, the outer Dublin suburbs. There is a building in the centre of Finglas that is largely empty,...

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 6 - Expenditure under a Maintenance Contract
2019 Appropriation Accounts
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (11 Nov 2020)

Paul McAuliffe: Many of those local villages have seen the benefit in the form of, for example, reduced carbon footprints. Mr. Bourke is right, in that this is about co-working as well as reducing space.

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 6 - Expenditure under a Maintenance Contract
2019 Appropriation Accounts
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (11 Nov 2020)

Paul McAuliffe: It is important that we give civil servants and others the opportunity to co-work. I am a director of Innovate Dublin, which operates a co-working space in Ballymun and is partnering with the local authority in Dublin 8 on other projects. I would encourage the OPW to work with these types of organisation. They are not for profit, are in local authority buildings and are satisfying a need....

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Energy Efficiency (10 Nov 2020)

Paul McAuliffe: 138. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the status of the national retrofitting scheme and the plan to designate a national retrofitting delivery body by the end of 2020 as outlined in the programme for Government. [35000/20]

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Energy Efficiency (10 Nov 2020)

Paul McAuliffe: 142. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment his plans for changes to the various SEAI schemes and grants available to private homeowners to make their homes more energy efficient.; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34999/20]

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Cycle to Work Scheme (10 Nov 2020)

Paul McAuliffe: 311. To ask the Minister for Finance if consideration will be given to amending the bike to work scheme to allow more cohorts access the scheme, including the self-employed and retired persons; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34806/20]

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Insurance Industry (10 Nov 2020)

Paul McAuliffe: 312. To ask the Minister for Finance the work done to date on insurance reform; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34807/20]