Results 41-60 of 234 for speaker:Joanna Byrne

Written Answers — Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht: Departmental Funding (29 May 2025)

Joanna Byrne: 375. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if there is a deadline or timeline for the drawdown of funds awarded in the 2024 large scale sports infrastructure round of funding; if there are time-specific key performance indicators that must be met; if there is a cutoff date by which the funds must be drawn down and used; and if he will make a statement on the matter....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Policy, Governance, Expenditure and Administration at RTÉ: Discussion (28 May 2025)

Joanna Byrne: I welcome the witnesses. I am sure we all hoped representatives of RTÉ would not be here again in this Dáil term to discuss any more financial scandals, let alone so soon after the events of 2023 and 2024. Following those events, three reports were published by the previous Minister for the media, namely, a review of the governance and culture of RTÉ; a review of contractor...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Policy, Governance, Expenditure and Administration at RTÉ: Discussion (28 May 2025)

Joanna Byrne: That is not what I asked.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Policy, Governance, Expenditure and Administration at RTÉ: Discussion (28 May 2025)

Joanna Byrne: I was really looking for assurances from the director general that those reports and their recommendations are being adhered to. I respect that all of this happened before his time but it is disappointing that his first line of response to me was that he had not thought about it. It is fairly obvious to me that if he is trying to set a new regime for RTÉ and a new respect for good...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Policy, Governance, Expenditure and Administration at RTÉ: Discussion (28 May 2025)

Joanna Byrne: Considering the amount of time that was put into RTÉ in the Oireachtas, the exposure RTÉ got and the exposure of all the bad governance, the process the organisation fed into for so many committees, particularly this committee and the Committee of Public Accounts, and the time and effort put into all those reports, I would have thought that would be a basis to build on to ensure...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Policy, Governance, Expenditure and Administration at RTÉ: Discussion (28 May 2025)

Joanna Byrne: That is no problem. I will move on to the accounts and the impairments in the accounts. It is a matter of public record that information provided to NewERA did not give rise to any concerns, which is why its report did not flag this issue as a matter of concern. I cannot get my head around how that happened if it was noted in the annual accounts from 2020 to 2023, as I understand it. I...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Policy, Governance, Expenditure and Administration at RTÉ: Discussion (28 May 2025)

Joanna Byrne: Please do.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Policy, Governance, Expenditure and Administration at RTÉ: Discussion (28 May 2025)

Joanna Byrne: NewERA has stated that information provided by RTÉ to it did not give rise to any concerns. If NewERA was not given cause for any concerns, it could not, in effect, report on that to the Department. That is the bit that sets off alarm bells for me.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Policy, Governance, Expenditure and Administration at RTÉ: Discussion (28 May 2025)

Joanna Byrne: Okay. As a result of the issues arising, I understand the contract with one of the appointed suppliers was terminated. This led to a settlement agreement that is subject to a confidentiality clause, which I respect. Are such clauses still in use today? I do not understand the rationale for paying a supplier for not doing the job it was hired to do. Is RTÉ defending that these clauses...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Policy, Governance, Expenditure and Administration at RTÉ: Discussion (28 May 2025)

Joanna Byrne: On the writedown, it is fair to say that anybody who worked in the private sector, if they had overseen such a significant loss of money - I call it significant although the director general called it unfortunate - would receive sanctions of some sort. Has anybody in RTÉ received any sanctions? What corrective and preventative actions have been put in place to ensure that no further...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Policy, Governance, Expenditure and Administration at RTÉ: Discussion (28 May 2025)

Joanna Byrne: They did not receive sanctions. They left.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Policy, Governance, Expenditure and Administration at RTÉ: Discussion (28 May 2025)

Joanna Byrne: On a different note, do the witnesses feel that RTÉ can continue to operate within its current traditional revenue stream considering the fluctuation of people paying the licence fee or does RTÉ need to look at a change to Exchequer funding, as proposed by this committee in the previous Dáil term and recommended by the Future of Media Commission?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Policy, Governance, Expenditure and Administration at RTÉ: Discussion (28 May 2025)

Joanna Byrne: I am asking what the witnesses feel.

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Visa Applications (27 May 2025)

Joanna Byrne: 469. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality to provide an update in respect of a family reunification application (details supplied). [27083/25]

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospital Facilities (27 May 2025)

Joanna Byrne: 702. To ask the Minister for Health the details of the bed capacity on the ground floor east of Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, prior to renovation works carried out in 2022; the current capacity of the ground floor east; the number of beds the renovation works on ground floor east planned to deliver; the cost of this project; the value-for-money assessments or reports that may have...

Broadcasting (Oversight of RTÉ Accounts) (Amendment) Bill 2024: Second Stage [Private Members] (22 May 2025)

Joanna Byrne: Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachtaí who contributed. I thank the Minister and Minister of State for their responses. While I appreciate everything we received from the Minister and Minister of State this evening, there is a simple thing being lost with regard to the Bill that has been presented. The Bill simply puts RTÉ accounts under the oversight of the Comptroller and...

Broadcasting (Oversight of RTÉ Accounts) (Amendment) Bill 2024: Second Stage [Private Members] (22 May 2025)

Joanna Byrne: I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time." I hope the Minister will withdraw his amendment killing this Bill and support it as it stands. We ask those on the Government benches to also support this Bill as it would do what all parties agree needs to be done and bring RTÉ under the remit of the Comptroller and Auditor General. I have read the media reports that the media...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Apprenticeship Programmes (22 May 2025)

Joanna Byrne: 13. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to liaise with Louth/Meath ETB to increase the number of apprenticeship courses taught by LMETB in Louth and to locate apprenticeship training courses in Drogheda/south Louth, given the huge need for people qualified in trades and to make apprenticeships geographically accessible to a wider pool of people; and if he will make a statement on the...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (21 May 2025)

Joanna Byrne: The Government never built any.

Assessment of Need: Statements (20 May 2025)

Joanna Byrne: I commence tonight by mentioning and paying tribute to 14-year-old disability rights campaigner Cara Darmody, who began her 50 hour sleep-out protest outside Leinster House this morning. She is here to battle for her two brothers who have autism and profound intellectual disabilities and for the thousands more children like them whom this Government is failing. Despite its denials, it is...