Results 18,081-18,100 of 32,978 for speaker:Catherine Connolly

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (18 Apr 2019)

Catherine Connolly: I certainly have serious concerns. I am not sure how we can deal with them at the Committee of Public Accounts. We all have our opinions. I happen to agree with my two colleagues. How do we achieve value for money? The scheme does not result in value for money. Two weeks ago, I met representatives of the Local Employment Service Network in Galway. There are serious problems on the...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (18 Apr 2019)

Catherine Connolly: It is just a matter of teasing it out in some way. I have not teased out-----

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (18 Apr 2019)

Catherine Connolly: If the Chairman has completed the correspondence, I just want to go back to one letter.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (18 Apr 2019)

Catherine Connolly: On 12 April, the committee received a very helpful letter from the head of regulation at the Housing Agency, and I would like to comment on this. It was very helpful and I thank Ms Lyons for sending the information, which was very instructive. With regard to value for money, on the housing assistance payment, HAP, we are aware that €431 million was the projected figure this year...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (18 Apr 2019)

Catherine Connolly: People working in charities. There are glossy documents and a million things. Obviously we need organisations working on the ground and I am not commenting on that. I am commenting on the use of money and value for money, with a crisis that is intensifying. Where is the balance between straying into politics and looking at value for money in our housing programmes? The figure of 960 staff...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (18 Apr 2019)

Catherine Connolly: Is that similar to the Cope Foundation or is it different?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (18 Apr 2019)

Catherine Connolly: The Peter McVerry Trust has 228 staff and so on. In addition we have the Ombudsman talking about no value for money in relation to the modular homes - he might not have used that language - and no assessment being done on what they are giving. A figure used for modular homes was €100 million. It would be remiss of me not to say something here about no value for money in what is...

Public Accounts Committee: Environmental Protection Agency: Financial Statements 2017 (18 Apr 2019)

Catherine Connolly: Cuirim fáilte roimh na finnéithe. Tús ár laethanta saoire atá ann so táimid i ndea-ghiúmar inniu. I have read the documentation. A whole range of very important work is being done by the EPA. Two weeks ago, the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General and the Central Statistics Office appeared before this committee. I would place the EPA among them...

Public Accounts Committee: Environmental Protection Agency: Financial Statements 2017 (18 Apr 2019)

Catherine Connolly: The plan has been submitted. What has the EPA looked for? What are the gaps?

Public Accounts Committee: Environmental Protection Agency: Financial Statements 2017 (18 Apr 2019)

Catherine Connolly: I am going to talk about climate change in a minute. The children of the world are begging us to do something about it. We are beyond dialogue on that issue. What does the EPA need? What has it identified as lacking?

Public Accounts Committee: Environmental Protection Agency: Financial Statements 2017 (18 Apr 2019)

Catherine Connolly: What functions does the agency carry out in respect of climate change?

Public Accounts Committee: Environmental Protection Agency: Financial Statements 2017 (18 Apr 2019)

Catherine Connolly: The Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment has given us much documentation. It is shocking, considering the history of our country, that we have 71 category A landfill sites around the country.

Public Accounts Committee: Environmental Protection Agency: Financial Statements 2017 (18 Apr 2019)

Catherine Connolly: They are all over the country. Did some of those sites receive licences from the EPA or were they functioning without a licence?

Public Accounts Committee: Environmental Protection Agency: Financial Statements 2017 (18 Apr 2019)

Catherine Connolly: I am sorry to interrupt but I am conscious of time. Could we have a note on those sites? We would all be interested in seeing them. Perhaps the EPA could outline how many there are, which had licences and if they were compliant. We are being left with a legacy. We had a brilliant system in Galway. When I hear about dialogue and helping enforcement, it reminds me that Galway did not have...

Public Accounts Committee: Environmental Protection Agency: Financial Statements 2017 (18 Apr 2019)

Catherine Connolly: I both agree and disagree with Ms Burke. We were doing things very well in Galway city but the official response was not good. It was not an example of not in my back yard, NIMBY, syndrome. We showed that recycling was possible when all of the engineers and consultants were telling us it was not possible. Let us return to the specific example of the landfill in east Galway, which is...

Public Accounts Committee: Environmental Protection Agency: Financial Statements 2017 (18 Apr 2019)

Catherine Connolly: When will it close?

Public Accounts Committee: Environmental Protection Agency: Financial Statements 2017 (18 Apr 2019)

Catherine Connolly: Is that money ring-fenced?

Public Accounts Committee: Environmental Protection Agency: Financial Statements 2017 (18 Apr 2019)

Catherine Connolly: How is it ring-fenced? I will follow up in a moment on Deputy Catherine Murphy's contribution on Aughinish Alumina.

Public Accounts Committee: Environmental Protection Agency: Financial Statements 2017 (18 Apr 2019)

Catherine Connolly: Moving on to the topic of the site at Aughinish, I went through the information regarding the figures. I want to try to deal with the relevant issues. According to the correspondence, a sum of €14 million was identified in December 2016 for new financial provisions. On 16 January 2017, a figure of €28 million was mentioned in a letter from the EPA or issued via the...

Public Accounts Committee: Environmental Protection Agency: Financial Statements 2017 (18 Apr 2019)

Catherine Connolly: It is an unfortunate word.