Results 1-20 of 234 for speaker:Joanna Byrne

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: School Accommodation (11 Jun 2025)

Joanna Byrne: I read the press release issued on Monday by the Minister, Deputy McEntee, which detailed the 28 schools that will undergo major energy and decarbonisation retrofit works this summer under the pathfinder programme. It is welcome news for those schools and I have no doubt they are delighted to be selected. I understand the pilot inventory covered schools in counties Kildare, Meath, Offaly,...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: School Accommodation (11 Jun 2025)

Joanna Byrne: Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit. The school has applied for emergency works funding. It is also in the process of applying for the climate action summer works scheme this year. However, getting multiple grants at various times and doing the required works piecemeal is time consuming for primary school teachers who are already overloaded. It is almost unfair to ask them to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Arts Council Grant Management IT System: Discussion (11 Jun 2025)

Joanna Byrne: I welcome the witnesses. I had an opportunity to engage with the Arts Council and the Department on this issue at the public accounts committee last week. The briefing document provided to us from the Arts Council today details extensively the timeline and the processes that led to the IT system write-off. It is clear in black and white that people in the Arts Council engaged with the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Arts Council Grant Management IT System: Discussion (11 Jun 2025)

Joanna Byrne: In his opening statement Mr. Ó Coigligh said that governance, oversight and resourcing, among other things, are all core responsibilities for the Department. Despite being made aware of concerns on multiple occasions, it seems this was all overlooked. Mr. Ó Coigligh has attested to that himself in his admission of failings of the Department at that stage. The IT companies that...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Arts Council Grant Management IT System: Discussion (11 Jun 2025)

Joanna Byrne: Mr. Ó Coigligh was not Accounting Officer at the time.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Arts Council Grant Management IT System: Discussion (11 Jun 2025)

Joanna Byrne: That is very welcome. Mr. Ó Coigligh's intervention and the measures he has taken are very proactive and overdue, obviously, particularly when we look at what happened in this instance. To be clear, there is reform under way in the Department but no single person or team has been specifically held accountable for these failures. In other words, blame has not been apportioned?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Arts Council Grant Management IT System: Discussion (11 Jun 2025)

Joanna Byrne: I respect that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Arts Council Grant Management IT System: Discussion (11 Jun 2025)

Joanna Byrne: There were failures. That is a valid point. The Department failed, yet it seems, as a result of everything that is going on - such as the report that is in front of us today and the engagement that took place at the Committee of Public Accounts last week - that the Arts Council is being made a scapegoat. In particular, Ms. Kennelly has been thrown under the bus by the Minister by not...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Arts Council Grant Management IT System: Discussion (11 Jun 2025)

Joanna Byrne: My question is for Ms McGrath. The issue was touched on by a colleague earlier and was raised at a meeting of the Committee of Public Accounts last week. It relates to the conflict of interest with the National Concert Hall. Ms McGrath was emphatic that there is no conflict of interest. She mentioned a project earlier from which she exempted herself. It seems that the Arts Council funds...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Arts Council Grant Management IT System: Discussion (11 Jun 2025)

Joanna Byrne: That is fair.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Arts Council Grant Management IT System: Discussion (11 Jun 2025)

Joanna Byrne: Very quickly.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Arts Council Grant Management IT System: Discussion (11 Jun 2025)

Joanna Byrne: Fantastic. I have a query regarding to something in the annual report regarding rent costs the Arts Council spends. Can the witnesses highlight where and why it is paying rent and who the landlords are?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Arts Council Grant Management IT System: Discussion (11 Jun 2025)

Joanna Byrne: Has the Arts Council engaged with the OPW on perhaps utilising some of its properties?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Arts Council Grant Management IT System: Discussion (11 Jun 2025)

Joanna Byrne: To no avail.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Arts Council Grant Management IT System: Discussion (11 Jun 2025)

Joanna Byrne: Is the rent comparable to what is paid by other non-semi-State applicants in the area?

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Refurbishment (10 Jun 2025)

Joanna Byrne: 579. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to engage the SEAI Pathfinder Programme with a school in Drogheda (details supplied) to achieve their retrofit and energy goals, and replace inadequate heating and insulation; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [29769/25]

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Broadband Infrastructure (10 Jun 2025)

Joanna Byrne: 715. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the plans his Department have to effectively promote and successfully implement copper switch off; whether his Department has, or is working on, an implementation plan for same; when this roadmap plan will be published; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30040/25]

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Departmental Funding (10 Jun 2025)

Joanna Byrne: 1210. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if funding will be provided in Budget 2026 to deliver a community neurorehabilitation team for the midlands and north east in line with the Programme for Government commitment to complete the roll out of community neurorehabilitation teams across the country. [30307/25]

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Departmental Funding (10 Jun 2025)

Joanna Byrne: 1162. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if funding will be provided in this year’s Budget to deliver a community neurorehabilitation team for the Midlands and North East in line with the Programme for Government commitment to complete the rollout of community neurorehabilitation teams across the country; and if she will make a statement on...