Results 13,201-13,220 of 32,547 for speaker:Paschal Donohoe

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Public Sector Pensions (1 Oct 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: My officials and I have engaged with public service pensioners regarding public service pensions issues through meetings with the Alliance of Retired Public Servants, ARPS. Over the past few years, the interests and concerns of public service pensioners have been regularly articulated in those meetings. Through this process of engagement, I believe that public service pensioners have...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Public Sector Pensions (1 Oct 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: I acknowledge the contribution that retired public servants have made to our country. I also acknowledge the fact that if one is a retired public servant, one does not have the options to increase one's income that somebody who is still active and working in the workforce has. Significant changes have already been made to public pension payments during the lifetime of this agreement. The...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Public Sector Pensions (1 Oct 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: I am not scapegoating anybody.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Public Sector Pensions (1 Oct 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: Given the view the Deputy articulated regarding pensioners being scapegoated, it is only fair to outline my view on it. I recall that when I was dealing with this issue during the period in which the current wage agreement was being negotiated about two years ago I saw the average pension levels that are available to those who have worked for many decades in our public services. They are a...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Brexit Expenditure (1 Oct 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: The Deputy is asking questions on which I have not yet even given the Cabinet a perspective because they are the result of the work we must do to get a budget ready. I will update the Cabinet on all that next week, when I have concluded my work with all other Departments. It is a matter for announcement on budget day. When I am in a position to inform the House of the scale of the fund, I...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Brexit Expenditure (1 Oct 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: The Deputy refers to the potential return of what he calls austerity. Let me be clear that my plan for next week, as we conclude our position on the budget, is for continued day-to-day spending on public services to be maintained and that we will continue to spend more to ensure that our public services have the funds they need to hire teachers, to have the right number of nurses and to put...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Brexit Expenditure (1 Oct 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: It is up to the National Transport Authority and Bus Éireann to decide where they will buy their buses. They must try to source buses at best value, and hydrogen and mixed-fuel buses are an awful lot more expensive than the buses they have traditionally had in the past. As I said to the Deputy, it is my intention that our day-to-day spending on our public services will continue to...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Infrastructure and Capital Investment Programme (1 Oct 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: I have already acknowledged and outlined to the House on many occasions how the costs in regard to the national children's hospital and the national broadband plan will not impact on the kind of issues the Deputy is referring to. Deputy Cowen earlier asked how we are going to pay for these projects and I pointed out that, in the period from 2021 onwards, when the costs of these projects...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Infrastructure and Capital Investment Programme (1 Oct 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: Whatever the Oireachtas was across that period, it certainly was not an accountability-free zone.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Infrastructure and Capital Investment Programme (1 Oct 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: I do not know where the Deputy was across that period. I spent a lot of time in this Chamber, answering questions about the national children's hospital and the national broadband plan, as I should, given I am accountable to the House. I spent a lot of time in front of various Oireachtas committees, at which my role in regard to these projects and the decisions that I made were amply...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Infrastructure and Capital Investment Programme (1 Oct 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: Actually, accountability is putting questions to Members of this House and people who are in positions of influence, like myself, and my being held accountable to the House for them, which is what happened. In regard to the national children's hospital, the Deputy will be aware there was change in regard to individuals who were in positions of responsibility across the period when the...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Brexit Expenditure (1 Oct 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: I propose to take Questions Nos. 69 and 89 together. My intention is not to provide a "big bang" announcement. Whatever my last two budgets have been, they cannot be accused of being big bangs in terms of the changes we made from an expenditure, tax and social welfare point of view. The reason I am not in a position to tell the Deputy today what the resources are going to be for dealing...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Carbon Tax Implementation (1 Oct 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: The Government's climate action plan sets out ambitious savings targets across all sectors of our economy. The Departments responsible for the achievement of those targets are incorporating and developing policies and measures required to reach them. As part of the work that is under way, we are evaluating what role carbon tax will play. In response to the particular questions the...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Carbon Tax Implementation (1 Oct 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: When the Deputy refers to the views of experts, I will quote back to him the Climate Change Advisory Council, which refers to a rise in carbon tax as an essential component of achieving decarbonisation. That was the recommendation and view of the panel whose job it is to advise all of us on the kind of change we need in responding to the challenge of climate change. The Citizens' Assembly...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Carbon Tax Implementation (1 Oct 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: Many of the issues that Deputy Pearse Doherty is raising can only be dealt with in the context of the decision that is made on budget day and in the finance Bill that will follow. I am confident that if the House does make a move on carbon taxation, we will be able to give clarity regarding how that is ring-fenced. That is what we would love to do. The Deputy made the point that taxes have...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Carbon Tax Implementation (1 Oct 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: -----in the context of the role that carbon pricing can play.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Infrastructure and Capital Investment Programme (1 Oct 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: Just to reiterate some of the points I made earlier, what we are doing is looking at changes that can be made in the public spending code that build on the experiences we have had in respect of the national children's hospital and the national broadband plan. The cost relating to the national children's hospital was got clearly wrong and the length of time involved in delivering a project of...

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Capital Expenditure Programme (1 Oct 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: I am happy to give the Deputy Cowen an answer now. I was apologising to him because the question on legal penalties had not been answered and I thought it had been answered. I will make sure he receives information tomorrow, insofar as it is available to me, to clarify where the Government stands on the national broadband plan. Any delay in the Minister, Deputy Bruton, bringing a...

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Public Spending Code (1 Oct 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: As part of the ongoing reform of the public investment management systems, we are updating our public spending code. The purpose of this update is to strengthen the existing guidance to better align with the realities of project delivery and with a particular focus on improved appraisal, cost estimation and management. Clearly, our experiences with the national children's hospital earlier...

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Public Spending Code (1 Oct 2019)

Paschal Donohoe: I am aware of the issue to which Deputy Cowen refers and it is one that we are evaluating. The challenge we have is that if a company submits a tender for a particular project, unless there are exceptional extenuating circumstances, we must evaluate that tender for the project. The Deputy has been understandably careful in referring to this issue. Some companies that experience...