Results 1-20 of 31,083 for speaker:Paschal Donohoe

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Fire Service (23 Apr 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: If it would not impact on him, I would hope that it would not actually make too much difference to him regardless of when we pass the legislation. In any event the news is good. We nearly have the legislation drafted and we are working away on it. It will definitely be passed this year. We are going to work hard to make sure it is passed by the summer.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Fire Service (23 Apr 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: I am not 100% sure. A moment ago he was not going to be affected by it and now he needs a circular-----

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Fire Service (23 Apr 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: Okay. Right. In any event we will not be able to deal with this via a circular. We need to change the legislation in relation to it, whether it be for the Deputy's constituent or for all of the people who are affected by it. There has been widespread welcome for what we are trying to do here, which is recognising that people can work for longer. They are fitter, healthier and they are...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: National Development Plan (23 Apr 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the Deputy for his question. We have identified a number of constraints in delivery of the national development plan. To facilitate an exchange with the Deputy, I will pick two. First is the availability of the workers we need to translate spending plans into delivery of homes and projects and the labour and skills shortages in our economy. We are looking to address that through...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: National Development Plan (23 Apr 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: I would have to identity inflation as the biggest challenge we have faced, given the cost of raw materials we need to deliver homes has increased in the way it has, with a knock-on effect on many buildings our country expects us to deliver. That, by some way, has been the biggest challenge we will have had in recent years. While I am hopeful it will improve, we should not be naive in...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: National Development Plan (23 Apr 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: We are in a position to drill down into it. Unfortunately, the answer has been both simple and very difficult. The cost of inputs has gone up so much, including wood, steel and other things we needed in recent years to turn our money into projects the country wants. It has got far more expensive to build. In terms of indications that it is beginning to improve, at this point any evidence...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Capital Expenditure Programme (23 Apr 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: The Deputy asked me about 2025 and 2026. For 2025, at €14.35 billion, the spend will be 4.5% of GNI* and for 2026, with an allocation of €15.45 billion, it will be 4.6% of GNI*. Those are the figures. In fairness to the Deputy, she raised this issue at the very start of questions to me but the answers were under Question No. 58. That is what the figures are.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Capital Expenditure Programme (23 Apr 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: Yes, I answered that. We set a target of 5%. We are getting towards that target. We are making progress towards the delivery of it. I will go back to the point I made at the start of my exchange with the Deputy. Looking at the increases in capital expenditure year upon year upon year, between this year and next year there will be an increased spend of €1.2 billion. Capital...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Capital Expenditure Programme (23 Apr 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: I appreciate that. I am not familiar with the detail on the schools the Deputy referenced. I do not want to do them a disservice. However, no matter how much more money is available to the Government or how much it decides to spend, there will always be a higher demand than there is money available to meet that demand. That will always be the case. Anywhere any Minister goes, there is a...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Public Spending Code (23 Apr 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: I thank the Deputy very much. The infrastructure guidelines were indeed published in December. They had an effective date of 1 January 2024. As a result, they are already in effect. My Department has refreshed the requirements for capital projects in the new infrastructure guidelines, reducing the number of approval stages prior to implementation from five to three and streamlining the...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Public Spending Code (23 Apr 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: I will look at three factors. The first is whether the projects individual Government Departments decide to go ahead with are still within budget, that is, still in line with the original expectations set for the project. Second, I will consider whether the guidelines have led to an increase in the speed at which decisions are made and projects brought to tender. From my engagement with my...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Public Spending Code (23 Apr 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: My understanding is that, if housing projects are very closely related, there is an opportunity to bring forward a single application to the Department of housing. I will have to check that for the Deputy. I will do that. I believe the Department of housing will be eager to avoid cases in which two or three different housing projects offering different forms of housing come under the one...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Departmental Expenditure (23 Apr 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: One minute the Deputy is talking about overspend and the next he is talking about cyberattacks. The Deputy pretends - I say pretends because I find him entirely unconvincing in his arguments - to be making the case for the stronger State and the State doing more. I thought he was a left-of-centre politician when it came to the role of the State, but he does not appear to give the effect of...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Departmental Expenditure (23 Apr 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: Is the Deputy going to make reference to all the flood relief programmes that work? Is he going to acknowledge any of them? He brought up ventilators a moment ago. He is just the sort of Deputy who would be excoriating the Government if the ventilators were not available in the first place. We were in a crisis situation at that point-----

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Departmental Expenditure (23 Apr 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: We were trying to save lives at that point.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Departmental Expenditure (23 Apr 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: I can understand why he is behaving the way he is, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle-----

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Departmental Expenditure (23 Apr 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: -----it is absolutely fine. The Government was trying to get ventilators at that time because we were in the middle of a global health emergency. It is frankly below the Deputy to bring into a debate like this the attempts that were being made to source ventilators for our country in the middle of a health emergency.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Departmental Expenditure (23 Apr 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: I acknowledge, and have done on many occasions, the mistakes and things we got wrong-----

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Departmental Expenditure (23 Apr 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: -----in relation to the national children's hospital, but we will hear that from the Deputy. For a man who pretends to believe the Irish State can be the source of more answers to many of our difficulties-----

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Departmental Expenditure (23 Apr 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: I will conclude on this. We will never hear the Deputy acknowledge that the Government, the State can do anything right-----