Results 1,621-1,640 of 11,242 for speaker:Noel Dempsey

Road Network. (10 Feb 2010)

Noel Dempsey: I will be providing almost €412 million to the local authorities for their roads programme. I will also be giving them the flexibility to prioritise the roads that have been damaged. We will not stick to the normal 13 or 14 headings in the funding. Now that the local authorities have identified the roads that are damaged, we will ask them to prioritise and repair them. This could mean...

Road Network. (10 Feb 2010)

Noel Dempsey: They way in which they go about this work is entirely up to the local authorities. The grants we give are to supplement the local authority grants. The local authorities should make the best possible use of the money, whatever that may be. I do not intend to start micro-managing them. There is a need to focus on the damaged roads which must be improved and which are important for economic...

Road Signage. (10 Feb 2010)

Noel Dempsey: The European Transport Safety Council's document of January 2010 referred to by the Deputy is being examined in my Department. Statutory responsibility for the application of special speed limits through the making of special speed limit by-laws is vested in the elected members of county councils and city councils. In 2005 statutory guidance was issued to local authorities on the setting of...

Road Signage. (10 Feb 2010)

Noel Dempsey: I agree with the Deputy that speed remains a major problem in respect of road safety. It continues to contribute to an unacceptable level of deaths and accidents on the roads. The faster people go, the more damage is done, whether in the level of fatalities or serious injuries. I strongly support and endorse what the Deputy has stated in respect of tackling speed and the need to ensure...

Road Signage. (10 Feb 2010)

Noel Dempsey: I would support anything that would help to reduce the level of speeding on the road. I am unsure why there are not more speed limits painted onto the roads. It may be that it is not regarded as effective or whatever but it is a matter I can raise with the RSA. I am supportive of anything that would make people more conscious of their speed or that would encourage them to reduce it,...

Departmental Bodies. (10 Feb 2010)

Noel Dempsey: In the case of commercial State bodies, the salary scales of chief executives are reviewed from time to time by the Minister for Finance and based on comparisons with posts in the private sector. Salary ranges recommended through this system, known as the Hay rates, were last approved by Government in 2007, with a further general sanction by the Department of Finance for revised pay ranges...

Departmental Bodies. (10 Feb 2010)

Noel Dempsey: A balance must be struck. While the salaries of public representatives and their actions are open to scrutiny, I wonder whether prurient interest in what a fellow is earning because he happens to be in a port company is desirable.

Departmental Bodies. (10 Feb 2010)

Noel Dempsey: I am not accusing the Deputy of that but saying a certain amount of privacy should be afforded to most people who are not public representatives. A public representative should have a certain amount of privacy also. Although we continually-----

Departmental Bodies. (10 Feb 2010)

Noel Dempsey: -----decide to erode this, that is another question. As I said in my response, the pay cuts applied to the chief executives of non-commercial State companies and agencies within the remit-----

Departmental Bodies. (10 Feb 2010)

Noel Dempsey: They do not at present and that is why the Minister for Finance has decided to have a review of the commercial companies. From 1 September, the pay scale of a chief executive of Dublin Airport Authority has been from €287,413 at the bottom end to €359,320 at the higher level. This is the actual pay rate.

Departmental Bodies. (10 Feb 2010)

Noel Dempsey: That there is a certain set of procedures applicable to the companies that must compete in a commercial way and produce reports in the same way as any private commercial company does not mean there is a conspiracy.

Departmental Bodies. (10 Feb 2010)

Noel Dempsey: The Deputy's implication and tone, which may have been unintentional, indicates he believes there is a big conspiracy, that much taxpayers' money is being wasted-----

Departmental Bodies. (10 Feb 2010)

Noel Dempsey: -----and that nobody is doing anything about it. That is a totally false picture. The only reason the commercial State companies are not within the remit of the Comptroller and Auditor General is they act under company law. They are fully audited and must be audited. They are commercial and there are competition issues.

Departmental Bodies. (10 Feb 2010)

Noel Dempsey: There is no big deal about it from any point of view. The audit report about which the Deputy is talking has been made available publicly, as has the Baker Tilly report on CIE. With regard to the question of prurient interest, Deputy O'Dowd is absolutely correct. I apologise to him if he believes I was saying the salaries of chairpersons or chief executives of State bodies should not be...

Departmental Bodies. (10 Feb 2010)

Noel Dempsey: The National Transport Authority comprises a chairperson, three ex officio members and eight ordinary members. The chairperson and eight ordinary members must be persons who, in the opinion of the Minister for Transport, have wide experience regarding transport, industrial, commercial, financial, land use planning or environmental matters, the organisation of workers or administration. On 1...

Departmental Bodies. (10 Feb 2010)

Noel Dempsey: The Deputy is talking nonsense. He talks about a plethora of Fianna Fáil henchmen and so on.

Departmental Bodies. (10 Feb 2010)

Noel Dempsey: As I said to Deputy Broughan previously, being a member of Fianna Fáil should not preclude one from being appointed to a board. I always approach appointments to a board in an open and transparent manner. I try to find the best people possible and if they happen to be members of Fianna Fáil or Fianna Fáil supporters, I will not exclude them for that reason, no more than I would exclude...

Departmental Bodies. (10 Feb 2010)

Noel Dempsey: I happen to know the political allegiances of some of the people I appoint but I do not know the political allegiances of the vast majority of the people I appointed. In this case the Deputy should recall that I invited people to nominate themselves if they had an interest in this and I selected the people from the list of those who applied. I will examine that list again before I fill the...

Departmental Bodies. (10 Feb 2010)

Noel Dempsey: Regarding the directly elected mayor of Dublin and the role he or she might play in respect of transport, as I told the Deputy previously, my colleague, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy John Gormley, and myself are working together on the directly elected mayor Bill to ensure he or she has a meaningful role in the Dublin region in respect of transport...

Departmental Bodies. (10 Feb 2010)

Noel Dempsey: No. There will not be two chairs. There will be a national chair and a Dublin transport council-----