Results 641-660 of 9,393 for speaker:Alex White

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Estimates for Public Services 2015: Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources (7 Oct 2015)

Alex White: First, I was not asked to prepare an opening statement. The Chairman asked me for my general response to the question of the New Zealand guidelines and I gave that response. If the committee had wanted me to prepare an opening statement, I would have been happy to do that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Estimates for Public Services 2015: Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources (7 Oct 2015)

Alex White: Second, I agree this is a very good opportunity for the committee to see how well the Department is doing and I am very happy to open that for scrutiny this morning. However, in opening I was asked for a general response in regard to the advisability, desirability or operability of these New Zealand guidelines.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Estimates for Public Services 2015: Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources (7 Oct 2015)

Alex White: Could I add one or two remarks? What the Deputy said is extremely thoughtful. He is right. Sometimes it is frustrating for all of us, whether as a Minister or public representative, to try to measure the effectiveness of what we are doing. We could start work at 6.30 a.m. and work right throughout the day and then ask ourselves how we can measure what we did. I believe that is what this...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Estimates for Public Services 2015: Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources (7 Oct 2015)

Alex White: Absolutely.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Estimates for Public Services 2015: Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources (7 Oct 2015)

Alex White: Yes, we have an economics unit within the Department that is specifically charged with looking at this issue. Even on the basis of this short but useful discussion over the past ten or 15 minutes, I will ensure the Department will redouble its efforts, if I can put it that way, to address this issue and to so do in consultation with the Oireachtas staff and this joint committee because that...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Estimates for Public Services 2015: Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources (7 Oct 2015)

Alex White: Deputy Harrington asked whether I found any resistance to this process of scrutinising outputs and applying a measurement of outputs to the work of the Department. I assure the Deputy that I have encountered no resistance at all. In fact, on the contrary, I have found that for the officials I work with in the Department, who are very professional people, it actually enhances their own sense...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Estimates for Public Services 2015: Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources (7 Oct 2015)

Alex White: Yes. We have given those figures many times to the committee in the past. I can break them down later for Senator Mooney if he wishes but that is not new information. We have discussed it many times here and it is ambitious. It is very ambitious but it will be achieved.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Estimates for Public Services 2015: Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources (7 Oct 2015)

Alex White: That is a very useful intervention on the part of Deputy Harrington. I understand better now what he Deputy was referring to earlier. He is right because in order to be able to supervise or examine outputs, one needs to have the maximum amount of information available. One needs not just high level figures, but also the specifics. I will certainly consider what Deputy Harrington has said...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Estimates for Public Services 2015: Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources (7 Oct 2015)

Alex White: It is important to understand in respect of broadband, and I made this point when the capital plan was announced last week, that the figure of €275 million in the plan is part of the cost of the national broadband plan. It is not the entire cost that we foresee. I will not put a specific cost on the plan because we are about to enter into a procurement process involving bidders to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Estimates for Public Services 2015: Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources (7 Oct 2015)

Alex White: It was not done the way we are doing it, with respect to my colleagues in Northern Ireland. Different approaches are taken and we have stated we want a minimum speed of 30 megabits per second, Mbps. I want this to be understood because some people believe the speed will be up to 30 Mbps, which not the case. What we expect to be delivered under the national broadband plan by the successful...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Estimates for Public Services 2015: Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources (7 Oct 2015)

Alex White: No, the procurement process will hopefully commence at the end of this year and the Commission's decision on final approval will be made in parallel with that process.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Estimates for Public Services 2015: Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources (7 Oct 2015)

Alex White: Pre-notification must be first provided, after which final approval will be given. As I stated, however, I want to proceed to procurement and I do not have to wait for final Commission approval before doing so. Both processes will be done in parallel to save time. The idea of delaying the procurement process until Commission approval is given is not attractive to me as I want to drive on...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Estimates for Public Services 2015: Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources (7 Oct 2015)

Alex White: I am open to any suggestions members may have. In the current period, the most important step we can take is to freshen up the database used by An Post and make it more robust. On the commercial broadcasting sector, I dealt with this matter in recent days in discussion with Deputy Patrick O'Donovan, who is present. We have a sound and vision scheme, which is allocated 7% of the income...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Estimates for Public Services 2015: Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources (7 Oct 2015)

Alex White: Exactly, but on the question of the licence fee and the stock amount of funds that are there, if one was to introduce legislation to ensure the regulator was funded directly from the licence fee, as matters currently stand and short of all the things we need to do to improve compliance, one would have to increase the licence fee. I do not know if the Senator is proposing that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Estimates for Public Services 2015: Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources (7 Oct 2015)

Alex White: I said the difference between the figures of €27 million and €38 million comprised the inclusion of VAT, which was not included in the first figure, consultancy costs and the internal staff costs in my Department which were put into the €38 million.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Estimates for Public Services 2015: Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources (7 Oct 2015)

Alex White: The cost of consultants was €2.4 million.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Estimates for Public Services 2015: Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources (7 Oct 2015)

Alex White: There are no plans to change or remove the collection role in respect of the television licence from An Post. I indicated to the committee earlier that there are proposals I will be bringing to Government on the actual database to improve it and ensure it is more robust. They are the only plans we have.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Estimates for Public Services 2015: Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources (7 Oct 2015)

Alex White: There is no requirement for any levitation. On the question of the television licence, it is true, as the Deputy stated, that he has not advocated a distribution of the licence fee. Nevertheless, it is a corollary of the argument he is putting. The argument made by the Deputy is compelling enough, as public service programmes do not just appear on the public service broadcaster. There are...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Estimates for Public Services 2015: Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources (7 Oct 2015)

Alex White: Is the conclusion to be drawn that we should distribute the licence fee to those stations as well? If that is what the Deputy is saying, it is a redistribution of the television licence.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Estimates for Public Services 2015: Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources (7 Oct 2015)

Alex White: I respectfully disagree with the Deputy on that point. There remains a strong case to have a robust form of funding for public service broadcasting, by which I mean, principally, the public service broadcasters. That has been the policy of every Government going back not just to the 1960s, when television was set up, but right through the period when independent radio and television was...