Results 13,361-13,380 of 40,897 for speaker:Simon Coveney
- Questions on Promised Legislation (1 Feb 2018)
Simon Coveney: The legislation the Deputy is referring to is the Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill and it is due to be taken in the House in the week after next.
- Leaders' Questions (1 Feb 2018)
Simon Coveney: The Deputy is being deliberately misleading. The plan B-----
- Leaders' Questions (1 Feb 2018)
Simon Coveney: Let me answer the question. The Deputy probably does not want the answer so he can continue to create confusion.
- Leaders' Questions (1 Feb 2018)
Simon Coveney: Plan B will not be needed because e-net has been so definitive about wanting to see this process through. If the final consortium that is still involved in this process was to pull out, we would have look at a plan B but we are not at that stage and I do not see why Deputy Howlin sees us----
- Leaders' Questions (1 Feb 2018)
Simon Coveney: The Deputy knows because he was involved-----
- Leaders' Questions (1 Feb 2018)
Simon Coveney: The Deputy does not want to listen to the answer.
- Leaders' Questions (1 Feb 2018)
Simon Coveney: I can certainly tell the House that on this issue, I have no problem defending the issues because the former Minister, Deputy Howlin, knows very well because he was responsible for multiple procurement and tendering processes. That was his job. He knows that if in the course of a procurement process, commercial decisions are made where some of the bidders pull out but that does not mean...
- Leaders' Questions (1 Feb 2018)
Simon Coveney: Towards the end of a process here where there are a number of months left before a preferred bidder was to be named, we have seen another bidder pull out. That does not mean that the State-----
- Leaders' Questions (1 Feb 2018)
Simon Coveney: Let me finish.
- Leaders' Questions (1 Feb 2018)
Simon Coveney: Well then control people who are interrupting me.
- Leaders' Questions (1 Feb 2018)
Simon Coveney: People do not seem to want to be-----
- Leaders' Questions (1 Feb 2018)
Simon Coveney: No contracts are signed here. The obligation on the State is to see through this procurement process to get value for money for the State and to deliver broadband to homes. Judge this contract when it is signed in September and we get on with doing the business rather than continue a debate here on broadband and the lack of broadband delivery in rural Ireland which has gone on for years....
- Leaders' Questions (1 Feb 2018)
Simon Coveney: Not for the first time, I agree with an awful lot of what the Deputy said. The State's response here has to be across multiple different areas and initiatives. From a justice and policing point of view, the type of criminal behaviour we have seen again this week has no place in a civilised society and will not be tolerated by the Government. We are putting resources in place to ensure that...
- Leaders' Questions (1 Feb 2018)
Simon Coveney: A lot of semi-State companies have faced huge challenges in managing pension deficits in the past ten years and CIÉ is no different. I suspect there has been ongoing conversation between the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport and CIÉ on these issues.
- Leaders' Questions (1 Feb 2018)
Simon Coveney: When I was in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine we had conversations with Coillte on the same subject, because we had policy responsibility for semi-State companies. The Deputy is putting her question without providing me with detailed figures and we do not have a response from senior management or the board of CIÉ.
- Leaders' Questions (1 Feb 2018)
Simon Coveney: The Government has not ignored anything.
- Leaders' Questions (1 Feb 2018)
Simon Coveney: The Government has not ignored, and will not ignore, anything. We deal with semi-State companies all the time in the context of the pressures they face and this case is no different. If money needs to be found within the CIÉ system to address pension deficits, a process which will have to be gone through and it will involve consultation with unions. We have a State infrastructure to...
- Leaders' Questions (1 Feb 2018)
Simon Coveney: The Deputy signed off on this process.
- Leaders' Questions (1 Feb 2018)
Simon Coveney: The Deputy should let me answer his question.
- Leaders' Questions (1 Feb 2018)
Simon Coveney: Now that it is not politically convenient, the Deputy is not sticking with it. The Deputy said 300,000 homes were cherry picked but 120,000 of them now have broadband, whereas they would still be waiting if the commercial operator was not willing to roll out broadband to them, at its own expense.