Results 561-580 of 36,631 for speaker:Pearse Doherty

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works (2 Jul 2025)

Pearse Doherty: That is a huge part of O'Connell Street. I am talking about the Clerys side of O'Connell Street. Does the area span the buildings from Burger King right up to the Savoy Cinema?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works (2 Jul 2025)

Pearse Doherty: They are all five-storey buildings. Does the OPW know the occupancy rate for each storey of those buildings?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works (2 Jul 2025)

Pearse Doherty: Each storey? Burger King occupies part of one of the premises.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works (2 Jul 2025)

Pearse Doherty: And Revenue has offices on all of the other four storeys.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works (2 Jul 2025)

Pearse Doherty: Does Revenue use all four storeys?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works (2 Jul 2025)

Pearse Doherty: I assume there is a lease arrangement with Revenue. Regarding other buildings on O'Connell Street, OPW owns Nos. 44 and 45. Are those properties vacant?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works (2 Jul 2025)

Pearse Doherty: Have the properties been vacant since 2018?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works (2 Jul 2025)

Pearse Doherty: Are there plans for them? The buildings are shuttered and have graffiti and broken windows. One can see them today.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works (2 Jul 2025)

Pearse Doherty: That is okay.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works (2 Jul 2025)

Pearse Doherty: If there are plans, please revert to the committee on them.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works (2 Jul 2025)

Pearse Doherty: We talk about the city centre task force, and these two properties arise in that regard. I have some questions on the old Debtors' Prison on Halston Street and near Capel Street. Before the Minister of State took office, the OPW took housing activists to court to get a court order to evict them from the property. I am not speaking for the housing activists but the reason they were in the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works (2 Jul 2025)

Pearse Doherty: I appreciate that the Minister of State may not have the answer to my next question but I will ask it so that the information can be provided to the committee. It is suggested that it has cost €1.1 million to maintain the prison for the last five years. The property has lain vacant for decades and housing activists were evicted from it ten years ago. Please confirm how much has been...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works (2 Jul 2025)

Pearse Doherty: I appreciate that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works (2 Jul 2025)

Pearse Doherty: I do not have to mention that we are in the middle of a housing crisis and all of the rest.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works (2 Jul 2025)

Pearse Doherty: The property has lain vacant for more than 30 years. Surely to God somebody in the OPW, instead of building bike sheds out the front, might look at a property there that could be regenerated into housing or something commercially sound. The only action that seems to have taken place is the taking of housing activists to court a decade ago to evict them. However, I appreciate that did not...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works (2 Jul 2025)

Pearse Doherty: Can the Minister of State understand our cynicism?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works (2 Jul 2025)

Pearse Doherty: We were celebrating the 100th anniversary of the 1916 Rising and it was proposed that there would be a commemorative centre in the national museum for that year. That is nine years but nothing has been done. Are there any plans? Is there anything we can see? If there is, then please send them to this committee. From what we can see, there is no date to establish a national commemorative...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works (2 Jul 2025)

Pearse Doherty: If the design team is working on updating the programme, then that means the team did very little ten years ago. How can an announcement be made that a commemorative centre will be built on the national monument for 2016 and now there is talk of a design team? What scuppered the project? Is there any understanding of what scuppered the project?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works (2 Jul 2025)

Pearse Doherty: I appreciate that. I now question my faith in the OPW when it comes to the commercialisation of the GPO. Our history and culture must be protected. People really need to rally around because I am very concerned about what the Government plans to do, particularly in respect of the GPO. I appreciate that the Minister of State will get me the information and my invitation still stands for a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works (2 Jul 2025)

Pearse Doherty: In fairness, the issue was not listed for me to answer today and I do not have a response.