John Lyons
Question:175. Deputy John Lyons asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport his views on a matter (details supplied) regarding the Drogheda Port Company; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36814/15]
View answerPorts Policy
Questions (175)
Written answers
Ministerial consent was granted to Drogheda Port Company for the establishment of the Subsidiary Company in question, under Section 2.7 of the Harbours Act 1996 and in line with all the requirements of the Harbours Acts and Section 14 of the Code of Practice for the Governance of State Bodies.
I have no role in the day to day management, control, or operations of any port subsidiary company.
An overview of the Company's financial relationship with its subsidiary company is published in the Company's annual accounts, a copy of which is available on Drogheda Port Company's website or the Oireachtas website at:
http://opac.oireachtas.ie/AWData/Library3/TTS_Drogheda_Port_Company_2014_Annual_Report250615_125033.pdf.
National Ports Policy's core objective is to facilitate a competitive and effective market for maritime transport services. Drogheda Port Company has confirmed that the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) is aware of the particular investment of Drogheda Port Company in its subsidiary.
The CCPC has stated that it has examined the matter and that it is satisfied that there are no anti-competitive issues.
Waterways Ireland Funding
Questions (176)
Martin Heydon
Question:176. Deputy Martin Heydon asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the funding provided by her Department to Waterways Ireland in each of the past five years; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [36691/15]
View answerWritten answers
Waterways Ireland is co-funded by my Department and the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure (DCAL) in Northern Ireland. The current expenditure of the body is funded 85% by my Department and 15% by DCAL, which reflects the distribution of the navigable waterways in each jurisdiction. Capital expenditure is funded 100% in the jurisdiction in which the capital works are carried out.
The amount of funding allocated to Waterways Ireland from my Department's Vote for each of the years from 2011 to 2015 is set out in the following table.
Table: Funding allocated to Waterways Ireland 2011-2015
|
Year |
€m |
|
2011 |
€30.300m |
|
2012 |
€27.099m |
|
2013 |
€25.463m |
|
2014 |
€24.183m |
|
2015 |
€23.426m |
Freedom of Information Requests
Questions (177)
Seán Fleming
Question:177. Deputy Sean Fleming asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the number of freedom of information requests, in tabular form, received by her Department in 2015 to date; the number of these where the period of consideration was completed within four weeks of the receipt of the request; the number where the period was extended by up to four weeks because the necessary resources to complete the request within the original time frame were not available. [36742/15]
View answerWritten answers
The information requested by the Deputy is set out in the following table.
FOI Requests received to date in 2015: 139
Requests currently under consideration: 21
Requests completed: 118
Requests completed within 4 weeks from date of receipt: 97 (82%)
Requests completed between 4 and 8 weeks from date of receipt: 21 (18%)
For the sake of completeness, I would advise the Deputy that 7 of the 21 FOI Requests on hand are still under consideration more than 4 weeks after the date of receipt. The Freedom of Information Act provides for the extension of the period for completion of a request for a number of reasons. These include negotiation in relation to the scope of requests due to the search and retrieval costs involved, consultation with third parties and extensions invoked due to the voluminous number of records involved.