Results 1-20 of 33,707 for speaker:Pearse Doherty

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Health Services Staff (2 May 2024)

Pearse Doherty: 12. To ask the Minister for Health when he will meet with the Donegal branch of an organisation (details supplied) to address its concerns regarding broken promises to improve diabetes services in Letterkenny University Hospital; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19824/24]

Gambling Regulation Bill 2022: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (1 May 2024)

Pearse Doherty: I have to speak on other legislation before a committee. I appreciate being given time to speak. These are very important amendments which go to the core of how local charities and philanthropic bodies would be impacted by this legislation. We are on Report and Final Stages. I said we should recommit the Bill because the question before the House will be whether we pass this Bill with the...

Gambling Regulation Bill 2022: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (1 May 2024)

Pearse Doherty: That would be appreciated because the 9.30 p.m. cut-off provided in the section would impact on radio bingos that a lot of charities use to raise money. We made the point strongly last week that charities need to be exempt. The problem with legislation is that we have to deal with what is in front of us. I accept that the Minister of State spoke in good faith and it is clear from his...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Defective Concrete Blocks: Discussion (1 May 2024)

Pearse Doherty: I welcome all the witnesses. I am glad the committee agreed to my proposal to have these hearings because this is a very important issue, as many of the witnesses have outlined. At home, in my county, people will be looking in at this meeting and they are looking for very simple and basic answers. There are a lot of technical issues here as regards assessments, and we understand that we...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Defective Concrete Blocks: Discussion (1 May 2024)

Pearse Doherty: He heads up Engineers Ireland. He has that position. Where there is a recommendation for an outer leaf replacement, which means that the outer walls are replaced because there are deleterious materials, and a recommendation that the inner leaf and the foundations are sound, despite growing evidence that this is not the case, can Mr. Owens tell the committee he is 100% sure that those...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Defective Concrete Blocks: Discussion (1 May 2024)

Pearse Doherty: I appreciate Mr. Owens's answer but I am not asking about the standard. As regards the houses we go into, the householders are not worried about the standard, IS 465s or other standards the Government has. They want to know whether the house is structurally sound. We have before us the head of Engineers Ireland, and I ask him that question on their behalf. When the Government tells them,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Defective Concrete Blocks: Discussion (1 May 2024)

Pearse Doherty: Can Mr. Owens, as an engineer, guarantee families at home that if they replace just the outer leaf, the house will be structurally sound? That is the gamble they are being asked to take.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Defective Concrete Blocks: Discussion (1 May 2024)

Pearse Doherty: What is Mr. Owens's belief, given what the science tells him and given what all the international research now tells us as to how the deleterious material affects the blocks and over what time span? What does he believe as an engineer?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Defective Concrete Blocks: Discussion (1 May 2024)

Pearse Doherty: A conservative approach would be option one, which is demolition and rebuild. At the minute, demolition is demolition down to the foundations, and the foundations are left in. As a senior engineer in this country, if it were his house, and if he were approved for option one, demolition, would he leave the foundations in, wearing his engineer's hat? Would he build on the foundations?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Defective Concrete Blocks: Discussion (1 May 2024)

Pearse Doherty: As an engineer, Mr. Owens believes, as regards the quarry that created the blocks and also poured the concrete into the foundations, and despite the fact that the house has to be demolished and rebuilt completely, that there may be a chance that the foundations are okay. Is that his view?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Defective Concrete Blocks: Discussion (1 May 2024)

Pearse Doherty: The composition is, but the aggregate material that goes into both is the same. Mr. Owens knows this better than I do. The strength of the concrete will be different in terms of the mix, but is the aggregate material and the deleterious material not present in both?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Defective Concrete Blocks: Discussion (1 May 2024)

Pearse Doherty: In a lot of cases, however, these are self-built homes. People build their houses and order concrete to pour into the strip foundations and it comes from the same quarry and the same company that provided the blocks, which the engineers have now told them contain deleterious material. They tell them their houses need to be knocked down and rebuilt. Mr. Owens's response stretches...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Defective Concrete Blocks: Discussion (1 May 2024)

Pearse Doherty: Mr. Owens says we should take a conservative approach. Given the fact that the science is evolving and he said that the impact we see in the blocks will happen in the foundations, albeit at a slower rate, is a conservative approach, in his view, to get rid of the foundations as well? Would that not be the conservative approach?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Defective Concrete Blocks: Discussion (1 May 2024)

Pearse Doherty: One of the reasons we asked for this hearing was the excellent work the redress focus groups have done, and I really appreciate the fact that all the groups before us are interacting with them on this. The scheme does not work for so many people, but today we are not really going into that level of detail. We are talking about the existing scheme and the fact that some people are trying to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Defective Concrete Blocks: Discussion (1 May 2024)

Pearse Doherty: In the case of a house in Buncrana, say, where it is an outer leaf remediation option, they will certify that the replacement of the outer leaf is now structurally sound. The question then is whether the bank will allow somebody to come along, let us say Bernard, and purchase that house knowing that the property has not been deemed structurally sound. What has been deemed structurally sound...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Defective Concrete Blocks: Discussion (1 May 2024)

Pearse Doherty: That is fair enough. That is very clear. It is where there is no certification from the engineers. However, what is being said is the engineers will provide the certification but only for the remediated works. In other words, they will provide a certification for the outer leaf, but not the house. If the Leas-Chathaoirleach wants to buy that house, the question is whether he go to the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Defective Concrete Blocks: Discussion (1 May 2024)

Pearse Doherty: This is what I am hearing back home. They want this really simplified. I am outlining a scenario here where Engineers Ireland has certified the work. The remediation work was on outer leaf because that was all that was appropriate, although maybe another engineer was overruled on that. It was on the outer leaf, the certification is there but it is not a certification for the entire...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Defective Concrete Blocks: Discussion (1 May 2024)

Pearse Doherty: That is fine. When the bank is informed that there is deleterious material but it is not showing signs in the inner leaf, the fact there is certification solely for the outer leaf allows the banks to fully mortgage that property, that is, to fully provide a loan for that property. Is that what the BPFI is saying?