Results 61-80 of 266 for speaker:Shay Brennan

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2025.
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (2 Jul 2025)

Shay Brennan: Sure, no problem. Under A5, there is a figure of €1.98 billion. It is cumulative financial damages avoided by completion of major flood relief schemes. I have two questions on that. When is it cumulative from? Is that 1997, as per the note on the previous point? Will the Minister of State confirm that? How is that measured, given that it is damage avoided?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2025.
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (2 Jul 2025)

Shay Brennan: How do we measure what the damage might have been?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2025.
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (2 Jul 2025)

Shay Brennan: The cumulative figure is close to €2 billion. Is that since 1997?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2025.
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (2 Jul 2025)

Shay Brennan: A total of €1,000 is allotted for the EU Presidency. I cannot imagine-----

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2025.
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (2 Jul 2025)

Shay Brennan: Grand. B12 refers to one major project, a data centre investment. This is EU funding. What is that data centre?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2025.
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (2 Jul 2025)

Shay Brennan: What is it for?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2025.
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (2 Jul 2025)

Shay Brennan: Okay, great. I have two further questions, very quickly. There were 15 million visitors, which is an astonishing figure. Does the Minister of State have a breakdown as to how many of those were tourists, specifically international tourists, as opposed to locals?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2025.
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (2 Jul 2025)

Shay Brennan: Maybe we could get it in time.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2025.
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (2 Jul 2025)

Shay Brennan: Perfect. As regards upgrading works for people with disabilities, the Department has a target figure. In 2024, the target figure was 36. The Minister of State probably does not have the outturn on that yet, but does he have any indication as to how we are getting on compared with that target?

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)

Shay Brennan: The OPW seems to be pressing ahead with a national children's science centre costing between €70 million and €100 million, despite the existence of a near duplicate facility in Sandyford, which is just 10 km away from the site of the proposed new centre. I am sure the Minister of State is familiar with Explorium, a world-class and fully operational science centre which has...

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)

Shay Brennan: It is such a major spend and a major project that it is unlikely that someone among the seven witnesses present does not have some details on it.

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)

Shay Brennan: Does that mean I cannot proceed with this line of questioning?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2025.
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (2 Jul 2025)

Shay Brennan: It is a placeholder for now.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025: Discussion (Resumed) (2 Jul 2025)

Shay Brennan: I commend the Senator and her team on their persistence over the last seven years. We are hopefully in the final stretch. I am hopeful that we get this across the line with both goods and services. On that, I want to turn to the Attorney General. Obviously we are awaiting an opinion from the Attorney General about how he would advise the Government to proceed with services. This question...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025: Discussion (Resumed) (2 Jul 2025)

Shay Brennan: How likely might a potential legal challenge be? Is that more likely to come from one of the EU institutions or is it likely to come from a domestic business, for example? What would that mean? That is the legal question. The policy question is for Senator Black. How would Senator Black feel about this Bill getting caught up in a legal challenge? I do not want to use the word "success"...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025: Discussion (Resumed) (2 Jul 2025)

Shay Brennan: How would the witnesses feel about putting in a run-off clause - if that is even the word for it - that would give businesses time to adapt once this legislation comes into effect? I am thinking particularly on the services side. I guess the goods side could be implemented pretty quickly but on the services side there may be Irish businesses depending on Israeli occupied territory-produced...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025: Discussion (Resumed) (2 Jul 2025)

Shay Brennan: I have two questions in the limited time I have. Staying on the postcode issue or the enforcement issue, I understand physical goods are produced in a certain postcode, there is a database and clear labelling. That makes sense. However, I will go back to the software provider I mentioned earlier. If you have three or four customers in Ireland and you are charging about €1 million a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025: Discussion (Resumed) (2 Jul 2025)

Shay Brennan: I appreciate what Mr. O'Neill is saying and certainly with respect to the large multinationals this legislation may cut off a small piece of their market and their business and they can easily absorb that. My concern is for Irish SMEs. They do not necessarily have the luxury of changing their software system overnight. On a macro level, whatever the cost of this legislation to the economy...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025: Discussion (Resumed) (2 Jul 2025)

Shay Brennan: To be clear, I am not suggesting that any companies should be given an exception or exemption. I am suggesting, however, that where this enforces hardship, perhaps there is scope for the State to assist. As Mr. O'Neill said, it might not actually arise.