Ged Nash

For what it is worth, I think Deputy Doherty’s interpretation is correct. I would also appreciate the Minister of State’s clarification on the matter raised by the Deputy. It seems to me there is a particularly broad definition captured in the amendment. If that is the case, it is very welcome. There was a very wide lacuna in the legislation that was identified quite some years ago by Deputy Doher…

I am happy not to move my amendment because it has been dealt with effectively by the Minister's amendment.

It is a very welcome amendment and one I considered tabling but I did not manage to do so. I have dealt with cases over the years and I have engaged with the FSPO on behalf of constituents in situations where they were joint holders of a mortgage, the relationship had broken down and there was evidence of fraud, for the want of a better description, perpetrated by one of the people who held the ac…

With respect, the remarks the Minister of State read out are a restatement of the position the FSPO has put into correspondence with me over the years, and with others as well. Deputy Doherty is familiar with these kinds of cases. He has worked on them too. I imagine many other Members of the House have as well. The Deputy is right that we are legislators. We make the law and it is up to the agenc…

Just to clarify, this is Committee Stage and we will also have Report Stage.

I understand. We will be dealing with other finance-related Bills over the coming months. It is not unusual for an amendment that is not directly related to the subject matter of a Bill to be accommodated. This might be done in respect of the issue that is exercising me and Deputy Doherty. Deputy O'Callaghan has also spoken about it. This is not the first time I have raised this. We have raised it…

Drogheda is Ireland's largest town that is yet to become a city. We do not have a driving test centre. We had a temporary driving test centre for a couple of years, located in a local football club. The RSA decided it would not renew that contract this time two years ago, leaving Drogheda without any form of driving test centre. What did it do? It blamed the local residents when an arrangement was…

That has not been approved.

7. Deputy Ged Nash asked the Minister for Finance to provide details of any assessments made by his Department on the impact on the Irish economy of the possible introduction of certain tariffs by the US Government that will act as a barrier to trade between the United States and the EU; the preparations his Department is making to deal with this issue; and if he will make a statement on the matte…

My question relates to a matter which has been raised on two separate occasions in the House this morning, that is, the impact of potential tariffs being considered by the US on Ireland and the EU's trade with the US and any assessments the Department may have undertaken at this stage on that impact. The Minister addressed the matter earlier but I have a couple of related questions in the follow-u…

One of the implications of all of this that is probably less well understood is the fact that Ireland is the ninth-largest foreign direct investor in the US economy and that Irish firms are responsible for a substantial number of good jobs in the US. Of course, President Trump is nothing if not unpredictable. We were expecting some form of white smoke from the White House this week as to what any …

There is more than a grain of truth in what some colleagues said earlier but I would not put it in the way they have. There is an imbalance in the Irish economic and enterprise model and we are all aware of that, notwithstanding that we have to recognise the incredible work being done by Enterprise Ireland. I remind Deputy Tóibín to look at the Enterprise Ireland job statistics from last year. The…

62. Deputy Ged Nash asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform how he plans to ensure that the OPW and its structures deliver best value for money outcomes on all projects; the timeline for the completion of any proposed reforms in this area; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5404/25]

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Moran, back to the Dáil and congratulate him on his appointment. I look forward to working with the Minister of State in order to hold him to account but also to ensure progress in his Department in the context of what is an important role. There is reference in the programme for Government to ensuring that "the Office of Public Works (OPW) and its structur…

I thank the Minister of State. We know, and I will not recount, the different overspends around OPW projects that have been interrogated by the media, and indeed in this House, during the last period. The OPW is a very proud organisation with a long track record of achievement throughout the entirety of the history of the State. I do not want to see the OPW, its staff and the work it does to beco…

I look forward to seeing that guidance. I assume it will be published and made available to Members of the House because it is important in respect of accountability and transparency in State organisations, and governance, more generally. This morning, and during the past 24 hours, there was a separate matter to do with the public spending code - the outrageous overspend on an IT project in the Ar…

It has a brand issue, there is an issue with the OPW brand. The Minister of State said in an article in the Mail on Sunday he wants to rebuild the brand. What does he mean by that?

It is complicated.

66. Deputy Ged Nash asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform when he will conclude the process of workforce planning referred to in the programme for Government for the public sector; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5124/25]

Will the Minister put on the record the position relating to the programme for Government commitment on the process of workforce planning? It is referred to in the document adopted by the House. Will he elaborate on precisely what that means, what the process involves and when he expects to complete that initiative?

I am glad the Minister made the point that the public sector ought to be the employer of choice. It needs to be the exemplar and best practice needs to be shown. A degree of workforce planning in the ranks of junior Ministers has taken place this week. The Minister claimed that because of an expanded population we require additional Ministers of State. We had that debate yesterday. He is right tha…

IBEC has even made an assessment in recent years and has caught up with the position of the Labour Party and others that our State is not only too small to service current economic and social needs, but future economic and social needs and ambitions. I will make two points. The first is that when we talk about agility, the public sector and the private sector need to be agile. There is now competi…

70. Deputy Ged Nash asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform to provide details on the full number of staff who will be assigned to the proposed dedicated infrastructure division in his Department; if he will provide details on the range of skill sets that will be available within the division; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5127/25]

This question is on the commitment made in the programme for Government to create a dedicated infrastructure division in the Department. Will the Minister put on the record the range of skill sets that will be available, the number of staff to be employed and the overall complexion of that particular division, which will be critical to the development of crucial infrastructure in our country?

I thank the Minister very much. The creation of this division seems to be a halfway house between Fine Gael's manifesto commitment to a Department of infrastructure and Fianna Fáil's own ambitions in this area, as reflected in its general election manifesto. The division will be headed by a deputy Secretary General. That is also the case in some other Departments. I believe the Department of Justi…