Latest news with #JackChambers
Irish Times
a day ago
- Business
- Irish Times
Chambers to focus on costs over design for big projects and how Trump could hit the economy
The Government will prioritise 'cost and efficiency over design standards and aesthetics,' when it comes to future infrastructure spending after the cost overruns and delays of the €2.24 billion National Children's Hospital, according to Jack Chambers, the Minister for Public Expenditure. Mark Paul spoke to the Minister in London. Sales of Irish-made green transport fuel tumbled last year, despite sharp rises in consumption spurred by a Government scheme, figures show. Barry O'Halloran reports. US confectionery giant Hershey has bought the Irish founder of Fulfil Nutrition out of their joint venture selling the protein bars in North America. As Dominic Coyle reports, when updating investors recently on its quarterly figures, Hershey said that it had taken the opportunity to acquire the Fulfil brand in North America where it has operated a joint venture with Barry Connolly since 2020. Golf is directly worth about €717 million to Ireland's economy each year following significant growth fuelled by increased participation , strong club membership, and a recovery in golf tourism following the Covid-19 pandemic, according to new research. Colin Gleeson reports. READ MORE When it comes to working and having children, it's more difficult for women to climb to the top of their profession. From the gender pay and promotions gap, the childcare and domestic juggle and the women's health gap, many structural and societal barriers are put in the way. We all know some parents who've both made it professionally and seem to have it all figured out. But have they really or are they stressed out of their minds? Margaret E Ward explores the issue. Mortgage approvals reached record levels in the past 12 months, rising to €14.1 billion driven by a 17.8 per cent year-on-year increase in mortgage values. Hugh Dooley has the story. As the world reels from US president Donald Trump's bombing of Iran and whipsawing trade policies, Eoin Burke-Kennedy looks at the risks it may pose to the Irish economy. Eoin also explores in his column what Trump is trying to achieve with his moves that are driving down the value of the dollar , and whether his plan can work. Datalex, the retail software provider for airlines, has said it is continuing to weigh fresh funding options as it comes within days of relying on another backstop loan facility from businessman Dermot Desmond. Joe Brennan reports. Joe also reports that Krake, the crypto exchange , has secured authorisation from the Central Bank of Ireland under new EU regulations, which the company said would allow it to expand more quickly across the Europe. William Fitzgerald left a career in Google to set up a firm aimed at helping workers secure their rights in Caliornia, and is now looking to expand The Workers Agency. He sat down with Ian Curran. The White House has said a decision on nominating the next US Federal Reserve chief is not 'imminent' after a report that Donald Trump could nominate a new chair as soon as this summer knocked the dollar. As we start to count down to the budget , what next for child benefit? Cliff Taylor breaks down what to expect in Smart Money. If you'd like to read more about the issues that affect your finances try signing up to On the Money , the weekly newsletter from our personal finance team, which will be issued every Friday to Irish Times subscribers.
Irish Times
a day ago
- Business
- Irish Times
Cost to take priority over ‘aesthetics' in future State infrastructure projects
The Government will prioritise 'cost and efficiency over design standards and aesthetics' when it comes to future infrastructure spending after the cost overruns and delays of the €2.24 billion national children's hospital , the Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers has said. 'There needs to be much better discipline in cost effectiveness in projects,' Mr Chambers said in London. 'That means making choices around cost and efficiency over design standards and aesthetics in some instances. There are important lessons out of the children's hospital,' he said. The Minister confirmed the Government will publish a review next month of the State's €165 billion National Development Plan that will map out multiannual spending on specific projects into the medium term, instead of planning funding year-by-year. 'We have heard the concerns about the annualised nature of [current] funding and how that affects the pipeline of projects,' said the Minister. 'Some commercial State bodies aren't even sure on a year-to-year basis what projects they can commence.' READ MORE He said a new approach to decide funding for a pipeline of projects over the longer term would 'send a strong signal to the market that the projects are coming'. Water, wastewater and energy projects will be prioritised over all other types of investment, along with transport infrastructure targeted at areas where new housing can be built. The review will also allocate an extra €20 billion for investment, comprised of back-taxes received from Apple, the State's sale of AIB shares and other funds. Mr Chambers spoke to The Irish Times on the margins of an insurance industry event at the City of London offices of the Fidelis Partnership, a specialist firm that covers risky events such as wars. He said he was still in talks with other Ministers over infrastructural spending but hinted he planned to disappoint them with a 'disciplined' focus on his core priorities of water, energy and transport to boost housing. 'There is always ambition in Government that exceeds what's possible.' He said the core areas he intends to prioritise 'are not optional extras'. He singled out investment in the power grid as one area to be prioritised at the expense of less urgent projects. 'We have an infrastructural deficit. We need to address that and front up to it. That means choices and trade-offs.' The Minister said rules around capital spending in State departments and agencies will also be overhauled to cut red-tape and reduce 'needless delays'.
Irish Times
a day ago
- Politics
- Irish Times
Infrastructure crisis must be tackled with the same energy as Brexit
Will the Government be brave enough to implement a set of radical recommendations from the taskforce on infrastructure which is due to report next month? The response will be a clear signal about whether the Coalition parties are capable of implementing the kind of actions the country requires as a matter of urgency. If they fail to act decisively to eliminate the bottlenecks that have blocked the overdue development of our water, energy and transport infrastructure, the housing crisis will only get worse and centre-ground politics could be discredited for a generation. The fact that the infrastructure taskforce, chaired by Jack Chambers , contains a wealth of experience in the private and public sectors is a positive sign. One member of the taskforce, Sean O'Driscoll, former chief executive of Glen Dimplex, has publicly committed it to putting forward a range of radical options. Tánaiste Simon Harris has promised to respond with 'big, brave, bold decisions'. If the Coalition lives up to that commitment there is a lot that can be achieved in a short space of time, but political courage will be essential in the face of the inevitable howls of protest. READ MORE One of the main blockages to progress has been abuse of court procedure by objectors to almost every major infrastructural project, and plenty of smaller ones as well. The result has been indefinite delays to critical water, energy and transport projects as well as housing development. The inertia that has gripped decision making in the State for far too long is illustrated by the way a comprehensive set of proposals to remove legal obstacles from the planning system seem to have disappeared into a black hole. A detailed report on the operation of civil law, chaired by the highly respected former president of the High Court, Peter Kelly, which was published in 2020, put forward a range of straightforward measures to streamline the process of judicial review and end the flood of planning hearings clogging up the courts. The response to three big, potentially overwhelming events over the past decade and a half, the financial crisis, Brexit and the Covid pandemic, show that the system is capable of decisive action when the need arises The key proposals were the introduction of a simple piece of legislation to ensure that trivial issues such as typographical errors in planning applications should not be grounds for a judicial review. More importantly it proposed that the courts should not hear a case unless the applicant is able to demonstrate that they have a substantial interest in a planning decision and have a reasonable chance of winning. The current situation whereby an individual or group can object to a development hundreds of kilometres away from where they live or do business is one of the greatest absurdities of our planning system. The abandonment of Apple 's planned development in Athenry was just one example of the system's weakness. The Kelly report made a range of other proposals, including tightening the rules on the awarding of costs and the length of time it takes to have cases heard. In a letter to the then minister for justice, Helen McEntee , introducing his report, Kelly noted how Lytton Strachey in his celebrated short biography of Florence Nightingale quoted her concern that a report of the royal commission into the health of the army 'would like so many other royal commissions before and since, turn out to have achieved nothing but the concoction of a very fat blue book on a very high shelf'. Kelly remarked that not much had changed since Victorian times when it came to implementing reports containing valuable recommendations for reform or innovation. 'In an effort to avoid such a result, the review group determined at its first meeting to produce recommendations which would be practical, affordable and capable of implementation with as little fuss as possible.' Despite producing a report that lived up to that billing, the fate Kelly feared has come to pass. It is just one example of the lethargy which can beset the political and administrative system when it comes to making and implementing big decisions whose need is glaringly obvious. The response to three big, potentially overwhelming events over the past decade and a half, the financial crisis, Brexit and the Covid pandemic, show that the system is capable of decisive action when the need arises. The same kind of focus, allied to a resolve to face down objectors, will be required when it comes to implementing the expected radical recommendations of the taskforce. The timidity with which the political system has treated the proposed pipeline from the Shannon to Dublin, to guarantee the future water supply for the capital, illustrates the extent of the issue. The needless delay in constructing a motorway between Cork and Limerick is another example. The building of Ardnacrusha in the 1920s is often cited as a model of what can be achieved by courageous government action but O'Driscoll has pointed out that much more recently, in the early 1980s, a gas pipeline between the Kinsale field and Dublin was constructed in 18 months. So big projects can be devised and implemented if the political will to drive them exists. The Coalition needs to be brave and implement radical change for the common good. Failure will have dire consequences for generations to come.
Extra.ie
2 days ago
- Business
- Extra.ie
€2 a week? – ‘Sweetheart' rent deals set to face probe
Pressure is growing on the Office of Public Works to fully explain why it lets out State-owned properties to retired civil servants, with two Oireachtas committees now set to investigate the issue. last weekend exclusively revealed that current civil servants are living effectively rent-free under a sweetheart deal in secret 'ghost houses' in the Phoenix Park. Today's top videos STORY CONTINUES BELOW There are six residential properties in the Phoenix Park that are managed by the OPW but do not exist on any publicly available official asset register. There are six residential properties in the Phoenix Park that are managed by the OPW but do not exist on any publicly available official asset register. Pic: Google Maps The OPW has refused to confirm what rents the current and former State employees are paying, but overall figures released in 2021 suggest the average rent could be as low as €135 a month. The Department of Agriculture was previously found to be charging €2 a week in rent to a former employee who was living in a cottage owned by the State. A team from the Comptroller and Auditor General discovered the Georgian farmhouse known as 'Stacumny Cottage' during a visit to Backweston in Kildare, where the Department of Agriculture have facilities. The Department of Agriculture was previously found to be charging €2 a week in rent to a former employee who was living in a cottage owned by the State. Pic: File It found the cottage was not recorded on the department's or the OPW's asset register. Aidan Farrelly, a Social Democrats TD who sits on the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), confirmed that he had written to the chair of the committee seeking answers on the matter. Mr Farrelly said: 'It would be my hope that we write to the OPW with a series of questions about these properties.' Public Expenditure Minister Jack Chambers. Pic: Fran Veale The Public Expenditure Minister, Jack Chambers, yesterday also confirmed that Kevin 'Boxer' Moran would appear before the Finance Committee next week on the matter. Mr Chambers is now the third Government figure this week to have no update on the matter. Taoiseach Micheál Martin this week said he was 'unaware' of the reports when he was questioned on the matter by Micheál Martin. Pic: Simon Wohlfahrt/Bloomberg via Getty Images Housing Minister James Browne was asked about the properties yesterday morning but said he had only just become aware of the story. Parliamentary questions in 2017 indicate that Mr Moran is aware of the issue, as he previously served as a minister for state. He said: 'My officials have advised that there are occasions where the properties remain occupied by retired staff and widowed spouses on compassionate grounds. 'Decisions in relation to extended occupancy are made on a case-by-case basis. Duration of occupancy varies from a minimum of three years to life.'
Irish Times
2 days ago
- Business
- Irish Times
Civil Service and ministerial pensions error was known about since 2017
Officials first became aware of an error which could lead to Ministers and civil servants owing thousands of euro to the State in 2017, eight years before it became public. The 'serious and systemic' issues at the National Shared Services Office (NSSO) may also lead to some Ministers being owed thousands of euro. Sums that will need to be recouped by the State range from hundreds of euro to just over €30,000. They were first disclosed to the public by Minister for Public Expenditure and Public Service Reform Jack Chambers earlier this month. Aside from the implications for ministerial pensions, a pool of up to 13,000 civil servants may be affected by the matter and are having their pension deductions checked. However, Mr Chambers told the Oireachtas finance committee on Wednesday that the issue stemmed from a pension appeal decision that was issued in 2017 when an individual questioned their own pension entitlement. READ MORE There is also an issue in relation to the pensions of 30 retired senior civil servants and one of them could owe as much as €280,000 But it was years before the shared payroll office explored the wider implications of the decision, Mr Chambers told Labour Party finance spokesman Ged Nash. 'It took the NSSO until July of 2024 to query if the approach following the appeal in 2017 should apply to a broader group,' Mr Chambers told the committee. Following that, there was interaction between the NSSO and the Department of Public Expenditure last year on the application of the allowances, he said. That concluded earlier this year. 'Indeed, the gap between that period is of concern,' he said. 'That's why we need an external audit.' There is also an issue in relation to the pensions of 30 retired senior civil servants and one of them could owe as much as €280,000 as a result of the NSSO errors. Mr Chambers said he became aware of the issue at the end of April, and it was further scoped in his department in May. He said draft terms of reference for an external audit of the issue were received this week and an appointment of an external auditor would follow in the coming weeks. The Minister said that the expectation of the pool of 13,000 potentially-affected civil servants, who were on work-share arrangements, is expected to be smaller once the audit is completed. Mr Chambers said it was important that there be accountability around the issues which have come to light. He told the committee the audit would take a number of months. 'It is important as part of the broader accountability oversight but also transparency around what other issues could be identified,' he said. 'It's really important for that to happen quickly, and that will be the breadth of the terms of reference which we will establish.' Mr Nash told The Irish Times it was important the NSSO and those involved in the review be given space to properly identify the extent of the issue. 'However, it does need to be done as expeditiously as possible and we need to understand how and why this issue had become a wider, more systemic problem for the system, and to apply the lessons from this experience,' the Louth TD said. 'It is also important that retired civil and public servants who may be caught up in this, through no fault of their own, are informed as soon as possible about the situation that applies to them, and that ways are identified for these matters to be put to bed in a way that is reasonable and fair to everyone.' It is believed most current Government Ministers and Ministers of State will owe money to the State due to errors in their pension deductions. Some may be due some money back.
