Results 16,021-16,040 of 21,499 for speaker:Mary Lou McDonald

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances
Vote 42 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
Chapter 6 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 12 - Vote Accounting
Chapter 13 - Procurement without a Competitive Process (3 Oct 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: This is not with regard to all of the employees of the National Lottery Company, but to a section of them who were and are contracted to An Post. Bord Gáis Energy was mentioned and Mr. Watt indicated the end of year in respect of the sale of this asset. I want to ask the same question about the staff in Bord Gáis Energy. What level of consultation, if any, has there been between...

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances
Vote 42 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
Chapter 6 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 12 - Vote Accounting
Chapter 13 - Procurement without a Competitive Process (3 Oct 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: I wish to make an observation. I am sure Mr. Watt is aware I disagree fundamentally with Government policy on the lottery and Bord Gáis Energy. However, given the decision has been made I suggest the last thing the Department needs is industrial relations turbulence in these entities. I recommend the Department does not take a laissez-faire approach in respect of these matters....

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances
Vote 42 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
Chapter 6 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 12 - Vote Accounting
Chapter 13 - Procurement without a Competitive Process (3 Oct 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: I wish to ask about procurement. I will be parochial and state the Grangegorman project, which is in the heart of the inner-city in my constituency, offered a real promise to allow local businesses and small and medium enterprises to tender, bid for and obtain work in this complex and large project. The feedback I have, notwithstanding circular 10/10 to which Mr. Watt referred, is that...

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances
Vote 42 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
Chapter 6 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 12 - Vote Accounting
Chapter 13 - Procurement without a Competitive Process (3 Oct 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: None of this is disputed. The issue is the-----

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances
Vote 42 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
Chapter 6 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 12 - Vote Accounting
Chapter 13 - Procurement without a Competitive Process (3 Oct 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: Given Mr. Watt's fondness for babies, I am tempted to ask him to contact the relevant Ministers and ask them to reverse the decision to tax maternity benefit and to leave child benefit alone-----

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances
Vote 42 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
Chapter 6 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 12 - Vote Accounting
Chapter 13 - Procurement without a Competitive Process (3 Oct 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: Yes, those are policy matters and would therefore be deeply inappropriate for me to raise. I welcome the witnesses. I want to return briefly to the Haddington Road agreement, so that the committee has clarity on the figures. Mr. Watt cited a saving of €1 billion a year on pay. What are the cumulative savings over the lifetime of the agreement?

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances
Vote 42 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
Chapter 6 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 12 - Vote Accounting
Chapter 13 - Procurement without a Competitive Process (3 Oct 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: I raise the issue because there are two different ways of expressing the saving in real terms. One could say that once the saving of €1 billion is made it recurs naturally because those moneys will not be restored and count it year on year, or one could also say the total savings from the agreement amount to €1 billion.

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances
Vote 42 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
Chapter 6 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 12 - Vote Accounting
Chapter 13 - Procurement without a Competitive Process (3 Oct 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: Will Mr. Watt clarify for the committee whether the savings are net or gross? He has alluded to some of the uncertainties in the scenario.

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances
Vote 42 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
Chapter 6 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 12 - Vote Accounting
Chapter 13 - Procurement without a Competitive Process (3 Oct 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: We will have regular reviews to see how we are getting on and we can drill into the figures at that stage. I want to raise again the national lottery issue with Mr. Watt and in doing so I take account of the sensitivity around the fact an announcement is imminent. Mr. Watt will be aware that a number of staff were An Post employees on permanent secondment. As I am sure Mr. Watt is aware,...

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances
Vote 42 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
Chapter 6 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 12 - Vote Accounting
Chapter 13 - Procurement without a Competitive Process (3 Oct 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: The difficulty is that the situation is not at all hypothetical.

Order of Business (3 Oct 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: It is almost eight months since the Taoiseach's apology to the survivors of the Magdalen laundries and several months since the establishment of a very limited form of redress for the women concerned. To date, however, not a single cent has been paid out. I have raised this issue with the Minister for Justice and Equality with a view to establishing not just when the moneys will be paid but...

Order of Business (3 Oct 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: There is no legislative proposal on this matter. We could debate whether there should have been such a proposal, but I am raising the issue now because I am not getting answers anywhere else.

Leaders' Questions (3 Oct 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: I want to know from the Tánaiste specifically what he will do in this budget for people experiencing fuel poverty - those families who cannot pay their bills. What will he do about the fuel allowance and the smokeless fuel support payment? People hear the rhetoric about the "bigger picture" that the Tánaiste delivers that we are on the receiving end of global forces, but that is...

Leaders' Questions (3 Oct 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: They are two distinct things.

Leaders' Questions (3 Oct 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: For those who cannot meet their bills, the fuel allowance-----

Leaders' Questions (3 Oct 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: What about the fuel allowance?

Leaders' Questions (3 Oct 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: What about the fuel allowance?

Leaders' Questions (3 Oct 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: This morning we heard first-hand stories of families struggling to pay their gas and electricity bills. According to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, the average cost of energy bills has increased by €500 per year. Working families and those out of work are simply unable to meet the spiralling costs of gas and electricity. When one hears their stories, they are heartbreaking. In...

Leaders' Questions (3 Oct 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: When one looks at the figures and the achievement articulated by the Tánaiste with regard to retrofitting, I will be kind and call them modest, but the scale to which the scheme has been rolled out is certainly underwhelming. The Tánaiste must remember that his party promised a €40 million allocation specifically aimed at those suffering fuel poverty. I accept that high...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Mortgage Resolution Processes (3 Oct 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: 15. To ask the Minister for Finance the reason banks relied 62% on legal letters to meet the Central Bank’s MARTs; and if he will review the targets and the definition of a sustainable arrangement. [41506/13]