Results 9,281-9,300 of 20,057 for speaker:Brian Stanley

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (22 Sep 2022)

Brian Stanley: This is what the member informed me. I referred him to this document, according to which the milestone reached by the end of June was 15,000 premises connected to the NBI network, which is 23% of premises passed. The number of premises passed was 60,000.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (22 Sep 2022)

Brian Stanley: Some 60,000-odd have been passed, 15,000 of which have been connected. NBI was represented at the National Ploughing Championships yesterday and I raised this with it.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (22 Sep 2022)

Brian Stanley: Yes. A photograph of me was taken while I was being told this so I told the photographer to make sure a caption was put under it to explain that I was arguing with the NBI official about the low level of take-up and the fact that only 15,000 premises were connected. I have great concerns about this. We have got involved in this scheme and it seems that, where the national broadband plan...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (22 Sep 2022)

Brian Stanley: -----but we are a few years into this and we have only 15,000 premises connected as of 1 July. We need to bear this in mind.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (22 Sep 2022)

Brian Stanley: The target was 105,000 in the first year. There was then a revised target for that year and the second year. The current target is for 102,000 premises to be passed by the end of January 2023. That was originally supposed to be passed by January 2022 but that did not happen. The schools programme is going reasonably well. Some 679 schools are connected. There are also 284 community...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (22 Sep 2022)

Brian Stanley: Could the Deputy say that again?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (22 Sep 2022)

Brian Stanley: The response is in front of members. The figures are in it. They will be useful when NBI comes before the committee.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (22 Sep 2022)

Brian Stanley: In terms of the overall spending and the €2.7 billion that the taxpayer is covering-----

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (22 Sep 2022)

Brian Stanley: The connection fee is €100 except in certain circumstances in which a certain amount of cable has to be put down.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (22 Sep 2022)

Brian Stanley: That may be a factor but the other side of this from a financial point of view is that we are spending €2.7 billion and have only 15,000 households connected.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (22 Sep 2022)

Brian Stanley: We will move on. The next item is No. 1431B from Mr. Peter Reynolds, chief financial officer of Trinity College, dated 1 September 2022 and providing information we requested regarding non-compliant procurement. The committee has a standing agreement to follow up on and request explanations from bodies that are accountable to it where the Comptroller and Auditor General identifies...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (22 Sep 2022)

Brian Stanley: That seemed to be an unusual explanation. Do any members wish to come in on any of that? I ask for the agreement of the committee to correspond with Mr. Reynolds and to explain that the committee wishes to have a tendered solution for the taxation advice to support overseas offices. Is that agreed? Agreed. There is an issue with education and training boards, ETBs, and non-compliant...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (22 Sep 2022)

Brian Stanley: Its AGM is this coming week.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (22 Sep 2022)

Brian Stanley: What is the new name for the body for ETBs, does anybody know?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (22 Sep 2022)

Brian Stanley: It was the national association of vocational education committees, VECs, but-----

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (22 Sep 2022)

Brian Stanley: That is it.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (22 Sep 2022)

Brian Stanley: Its annual conference is in the next week or so.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (22 Sep 2022)

Brian Stanley: Is it agreed that we bring this to the body's attention as well?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (22 Sep 2022)

Brian Stanley: The next item is No. 1434B, from Mark Griffin, Secretary General of the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications. It is dated 1 September 2022 and provides a summary of the report requested by the committee regarding climate action plan targets that was undertaken by McKinsey & Company. The Department has consulted with McKinsey and there is no issue with...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (22 Sep 2022)

Brian Stanley: I ask for agreement that we correspond back with the Department and ask what portion of that estimated total cost of €119 billion by 2030 it sees as coming from the public purse. Maybe we could get a figure for that and a breakdown of it across the major sectors: electricity, transport-----