Results 1-20 of 4,875 for speaker:Paul McAuliffe

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (2 May 2024)

Paul McAuliffe: I also raise the issue of ASD classes. In our area, thanks to principals and a really good SENO, we have managed to open 19 ASD classes at primary school level over the last number of years. We need to do more to predict what will happen at second level as well. There is one school that has been waiting for nearly two years to open two ASD classes. It wants to do that. It is Sacred Heart...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Transport Authority (2 May 2024)

Paul McAuliffe: I think this is the NTA's first appearance here since our report last year which identified €150 million of lost spending as a result of the metro project. I want to come back to that, but just in case the witnesses need to reach for some figures on that, I am giving them some advance warning on it. I will come to a more parochial matter. I was at my local Tidy Towns clean-up day...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Transport Authority (2 May 2024)

Paul McAuliffe: In the meantime, however, on Saturday morning, I will be back at that taxi rank and I still have no answer as to why we are taking a 15-D hybrid off the road and allowing an 08-D to stay on the road. That hybrid is a car the taxi driver bought during the Covid period, before the first extension of the ten-year rule. He feels he is being led up the garden path. First, he fears that it might...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Transport Authority (2 May 2024)

Paul McAuliffe: Let us be clear: it is not fair. There may be reasons why it is not fair but it is not fair.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Transport Authority (2 May 2024)

Paul McAuliffe: With many electric vehicles now, we will be replacing the battery rather than the entire car. There is much less wear and tear on the vehicles themselves. Is the NTA actively considering the concept of abolishing the ten-year rule for electric vehicles?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Transport Authority (2 May 2024)

Paul McAuliffe: Ms Graham might clarify the process as to how that would come forward.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Transport Authority (2 May 2024)

Paul McAuliffe: Given how rapidly we are moving, and the public are moving more quickly than anyone expected, I hope the NTA will be proactive on that point and consider the abolition of the ten-year rule. I think it will be necessary. I imagine if you were to ask the Minister of State, Deputy Ossian Smyth, about reduce, reuse and recycle and the idea of forcing people to dispose of a car that in this case...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Transport Authority (2 May 2024)

Paul McAuliffe: Let me move on to the issue of metro. The report indicated that there was €150 million of income lost in the metro project. From my recollection of that, it was largely to do with the decision initially to end the project, then to restart it and for it to be on a different route. Do the witnesses accept the figure of €150 million and the recommendations of the report?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Transport Authority (2 May 2024)

Paul McAuliffe: Many people who come before us spend a lot less than €150 million. You would have to buy an awful lot of flip-flops to spend €150 million. I think of the saga that happened in here last year. For a Government agency to lose or set aside - I am not even sure what the correct word is - €150 million, albeit for probably very good transport reasons in order that we will...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Transport Authority (2 May 2024)

Paul McAuliffe: Yes, but a significant contributing factor to the money being lost was the decision not to take that project back up, which, by the way, had full planning permission and so on. We could have reinitiated that project. My question is how much of the €150 million would not have been lost had we gone with the previous route and the previous planning application.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Transport Authority (2 May 2024)

Paul McAuliffe: My question is what the value-for-money audit on that different approach was.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Transport Authority (2 May 2024)

Paul McAuliffe: We know that was a contributing factor to losing €150 million. The decision to change the route had a cost. What was the governance and oversight of that decision?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Transport Authority (2 May 2024)

Paul McAuliffe: Yes, but that is not my question.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Transport Authority (2 May 2024)

Paul McAuliffe: My question was what the governance and oversight was for the decision to choose a different route and, therefore, lose money. That is an important thing for us to understand as the Committee of Public Accounts.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Transport Authority (2 May 2024)

Paul McAuliffe: I do not accept that the Government decision alone is justification. Surely when the Government was making the decision there was a cost-benefit analysis, there were different routes put and there was a decision to lose €150 million because it was believed that it would save money elsewhere or it was better value for money elsewhere. That is my question. What was that process?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Transport Authority (2 May 2024)

Paul McAuliffe: Mr. Doocey is not joining the two projects together.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Transport Authority (2 May 2024)

Paul McAuliffe: They are not.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Transport Authority (2 May 2024)

Paul McAuliffe: They are separate routes, not separate projects.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Transport Authority (2 May 2024)

Paul McAuliffe: I reject that concept.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Transport Authority (2 May 2024)

Paul McAuliffe: You can ask anybody in Swords or anywhere in north Dublin-----