Results 1-20 of 1,193 for speaker:Garret Ahearn
- Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (1 Jul 2025)
Garret Ahearn: I too support my party colleagues' comments on the messages from the Minister for higher education about increasing fees in the next budget. I have got hundreds of calls from parents who are absolutely terrified of the cost that college fees will impose on them come September if there is an increase of €1,000.We know a lot of families who have two, three and even four people going to...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Arts Council Grant Management IT System: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jul 2025)
Garret Ahearn: I have been in and out of the meeting for votes in the Seanad and have missed things so if I ask a question that has been asked already, my apologies. Mr. Ó Coigligh said that he has confidence that things have changed within the Department, and that he was not satisfied when he came in first about the situation with the Arts Council. He said when he was in here with the Arts Council...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Arts Council Grant Management IT System: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jul 2025)
Garret Ahearn: What did the officials think?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Arts Council Grant Management IT System: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jul 2025)
Garret Ahearn: What prompted the council to inform the Department?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Arts Council Grant Management IT System: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jul 2025)
Garret Ahearn: Was it just a random phone call? Did the council ring him just to say it?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Arts Council Grant Management IT System: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jul 2025)
Garret Ahearn: Therefore, when the officials came here a couple of weeks ago with the Arts Council and it said it had spent €60,000 on legal fees so far they were, like us, of the view that information was correct. That bill comes back on the Department, so there are people pushing a legal case they do not personally have to pay for, or certainly the Arts Council does not, and we have now found it...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Arts Council Grant Management IT System: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jul 2025)
Garret Ahearn: Do the officials know when the Attorney General's office will come back to them with that advice? They did not two weeks ago, but do they now?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Arts Council Grant Management IT System: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jul 2025)
Garret Ahearn: As the weeks go on we are getting a worse outcome from the Arts Council.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Arts Council Grant Management IT System: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jul 2025)
Garret Ahearn: Can Mr. Ó Coigligh expand on that?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Arts Council Grant Management IT System: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jul 2025)
Garret Ahearn: The Department had told the council to cease any work until the Attorney General came back with the advice.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Arts Council Grant Management IT System: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jul 2025)
Garret Ahearn: The council did not listen to the Department's direction.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Arts Council Grant Management IT System: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jul 2025)
Garret Ahearn: Did the council tell the Department this work had been commissioned?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Arts Council Grant Management IT System: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jul 2025)
Garret Ahearn: How do the officials feel about that?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Arts Council Grant Management IT System: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jul 2025)
Garret Ahearn: Now it is €119,000, have the officials got confirmation that is it and there is nothing else that is going to be paid for?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Arts Council Grant Management IT System: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jul 2025)
Garret Ahearn: Okay. It seems crazy. The council lied to the officials, essentially.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Arts Council Grant Management IT System: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jul 2025)
Garret Ahearn: It misled them.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Arts Council Grant Management IT System: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jul 2025)
Garret Ahearn: Okay, the council did not give the Department the full information.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Arts Council Grant Management IT System: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jul 2025)
Garret Ahearn: I withdraw the word "lie". The council did not give the Department the full information.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Arts Council Grant Management IT System: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jul 2025)
Garret Ahearn: The council has a tendency to do this because when I asked it about taking on staff in IT at the time its representatives said they got no staff, but what they meant was they got no staff at a certain level, so they have a tendency to - what is the phrase I am allowed to use? - mislead.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Arts Council Grant Management IT System: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jul 2025)
Garret Ahearn: Or they have a tendency not to give the full information.