Results 17,861-17,880 of 21,260 for speaker:Mary Lou McDonald

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 6 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 16 - Central Government Funding of Local Authorities (6 Dec 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: While that is very interesting, it does not answer my question. I will attempt to rephrase it. Commercial private entities will enter into such schemes, legitimately from their perspective, not from the joy of building new infrastructure, but because that infrastructure in commercial terms represents a revenue generator for them. Other than that, they do not do so from the joy of providing...

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 6 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 16 - Central Government Funding of Local Authorities (6 Dec 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: How many plants does Veolia operate?

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 6 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 16 - Central Government Funding of Local Authorities (6 Dec 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: While I do not wish to zone in on that particular company, let us use it as an example. It operates eight or nine plants.

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 6 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 16 - Central Government Funding of Local Authorities (6 Dec 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: Okay, six plants. I am working on the assumption that it is not operating simply at a break-even position in respect of the operation of these plants. I am working on the assumption that it is turning a profit for its efforts. That is logical.

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 6 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 16 - Central Government Funding of Local Authorities (6 Dec 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: Can Ms Tallon tell members what that would be in the case of Veolia?

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 6 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 16 - Central Government Funding of Local Authorities (6 Dec 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: While I appreciate that information, I am not asking Ms Tallon that question. From the point of view of the taxpayer, I am positing that the State provides the capital to construct these six plants in the case of this firm. In accordance with the contract, it then carries out the construction, operates and maintains. I am not questioning that, as that is sound. In equal turn, the company...

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 6 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 16 - Central Government Funding of Local Authorities (6 Dec 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: Is Ms Tallon saying that it did the construction-----

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 6 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 16 - Central Government Funding of Local Authorities (6 Dec 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: With all due respect to Ms Tallon, it does not make sense to me to state the only method by which one would get sound construction or technological excellence is to use that kind of model. This is unless Ms Tallon is saying that because the contractor gets the whole piece, whereby it gets to construct, operate and maintain, it somehow discounts on the cost of initial construction. Is that...

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 6 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 16 - Central Government Funding of Local Authorities (6 Dec 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: I know that but-----

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 6 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 16 - Central Government Funding of Local Authorities (6 Dec 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: I am interested in unbundling this PPP model because that is what I have raised with Ms Tallon. I will try this again. One presumes it is accepted that private operators, which construct with State money but then maintain and operate these plants, turn a profit. Ms Tallon cannot provide the committee with figures on what that profit might be. Logically, where the profit is accruing to a...

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 6 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 16 - Central Government Funding of Local Authorities (6 Dec 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: I apologise for arriving late to the meeting. Let me deal with the PPPs. Most people work on the assumption that PPPs involve a quid pro quo, in other words, that there is private provision of capital for infrastructure and that, in return, the State gains. It is worth saying at this meeting that this is not the case with water infrastructure, which is the subject I want to explore....

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 6 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 16 - Central Government Funding of Local Authorities (6 Dec 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: Let us just reverse a little. I take it from Ms Geraldine Tallon that expertise, capacity and skill do not exist in the public system.

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 6 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 16 - Central Government Funding of Local Authorities (6 Dec 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: Yes.

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 6 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 16 - Central Government Funding of Local Authorities (6 Dec 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: While I appreciate that, I would have thought there would be as much certainty about capital costs and maintenance in the public system as in the private system. I believed that the deciding factor between standard procurement and the PPP model was value for money. In other words, I believed it was more cost-effective to operate through a PPP.

Order of Business (6 Dec 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: It is not agreed. I presume it is deliberate that we are being afforded so little time to debate the budget. Next week, as we know, will be taken up with the social welfare Bill. We have had some debate on the expert report and while I fully appreciate that more consideration is necessary, at a minimum we need to change the order for Monday to allow Members of the Dáil to have a full...

Order of Business (6 Dec 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: Why?

Order of Business (6 Dec 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: A Cheann Comhairle-----

Order of Business (6 Dec 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: I am asking for your guidance on this matter. It is not to facilitate me, but to facilitate the Members of the Dáil. This is a democratic forum and it is a budget. Why can the business not be reordered? Can you give us clarity on that?

Order of Business (6 Dec 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: We have a member of the Government sitting opposite.

Leaders' Questions (6 Dec 2012)

Mary Lou McDonald: I am not interested in Minister's outpourings and attacks on Sinn Féin. That is par for the course. I asked a direct question about respite care. He should not try to worm his way out of this. He knows this cut is wrong. He has to know. He cannot talk about protecting the vulnerable and then launch an attack on carers, who care, in many instances, for people with profound...