Results 1-20 of 149 for going forward speaker:Michael Healy-Rae

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

Michael Healy-Rae: ...not convinced today, and I am sorry to say that. The Bill contains a number of provisions that will affect highly effective charity fundraising for deserving causes around Ireland, via radio bingo games on local radio. These games, which raise significant and much needed funds for charities, involve the distribution of bingo books in local areas and are advertised on local radio during...

European Union Migration and Asylum Pact: Motion [Private Members] (1 May 2024)

Michael Healy-Rae: I thank the Chair and the Minister of State. I also thank the staff in Deputy Mattie McGrath's office who did a lot of work and research in putting forward this very important motion. I also want to address people who are critical of the Rural Independent Group and say we are trying to be inflammatory with this motion. They are wrong. What we are trying to do is hold the Government to...

Petrol and Diesel Excise Rate Increases: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (30 Apr 2024)

Michael Healy-Rae: I continuously remind them of what its leader said in a speech, where it was clearly stated that the Government was not going far enough quick enough. I represent people from Kerry who are hard-pressed to heat their homes and to go to work. That is why we brought forward motions asking the Government to go back on what it was doing. I have been the holder of carbon and marked gas oil...

Supporting People with Disabilities and Carers: Motion [Private Members] (5 Mar 2024)

Michael Healy-Rae: I thank Deputy Tully and Sinn Féin for bringing forward this important motion tonight. Relaxing the carer's allowance means test and increasing the disability allowance, invalidity pension, illness benefit, carer's allowance and benefit, and the annual carer's support grant is of paramount importance. I believe that taking care of people in their own home is the best place you can have...

Paediatric Orthopaedic and Urology Services: Motion [Private Members] (20 Feb 2024)

Michael Healy-Rae: ...all of that. I welcome the people who are in the Public Gallery. Unfortunately, the crisis in our healthcare system represents a litany of broken promises and unfulfilled commitments by the Minister for Health and the Government. In March 2017, the then Minister for Health, Deputy Simon Harris, made a commitment that no child would wait more than four months for spinal surgery by the...

Housing and Homeless Prevention: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (23 Jan 2024)

Michael Healy-Rae: I welcome this debate and thank Sinn Féin for bringing it forward but I also want to highlight one issue. Sinn Féin has made 11 points in the motion being debated tonight but I would like it if it had 12. The thing I would like to see Sinn Féin highlighting is its own contribution to the housing crisis. I will give an example. Between objecting to zoning and objecting to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Threat of Bark Beetles to Plantations: Discussion (17 Jan 2024)

Michael Healy-Rae: ...of the Department gives me no confidence whatsoever in what it is doing. I would like the Department to somehow or other listen today. I am a great believer in not looking backwards but looking forward. Even if the Department has lost the confidence and trust of farmers and the people in the whole forestry sector, it would be helpful, even at this late stage, if it started to listen. I...

Capital Supply Service and Purpose Report Bill 2023: Second Stage (Resumed) [Private Members] (29 Nov 2023)

Michael Healy-Rae: First, I want to thank Deputy Shanahan very sincerely for bringing forward this very important Bill because of the simple fact that oversight is so important when dealing with large sums of money. There seems to be a trend in Ireland in the last ten years that if a project is of a certain size, no notice in the world is taken of overruns and overspends. Take for instance the national...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Staff (7 Nov 2023)

Michael Healy-Rae: 533. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills what progress is being made on the issue of post-primary redeployment; her plans going forward to address same; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [48465/23]

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Post-Budget Engagement: Economic and Social Research Institute (18 Oct 2023)

Michael Healy-Rae: ...the ever-increasing cost of living makes it harder for people to balance their household budget and an increase in people's take-home wages is something we all want to see. However, when the Government says it is increasing the minimum wage, it is doing nothing. All it is doing is getting people who are creating employment, especially small employers, to pay more money that in many...

Financial Resolution No. 3: Tobacco Products Tax (10 Oct 2023)

Michael Healy-Rae: ...or do not want to do so, by increasing the cost of their box of cigarettes by 75 cent. In some cases, the only comfort those people might have in this world, or the only thing they might look forward to, is smoking a cigarette. Again, I am not saying we should encourage it, but we should not penalise those people. They might be living on a fixed or low income and the only thing they...

Nursing Home Care: Motion [Private Members] (27 Jun 2023)

Michael Healy-Rae: ...homes that they too are in dire financial difficulty. For any business, whatever it is, to work, it has to bring in enough money to cover its costs, be able to run the show, wash its face and keep going forward. However, nursing homes cannot do that at the moment. I am not a critical person but what is wrong with this Government is that there is no business person among its members....

Our Rural Future Policy: Statements (14 Jun 2023)

Michael Healy-Rae: ...Minister for roads and transportation who does not like building roads, bypasses or bridges. The Green Party members have already held up numerous major infrastructural projects which we want to go ahead with in this country and, to be honest, their whole ethos is anti-rural Ireland. Yesterday, the Government had a very proactive person like the Minister in attendance and like the...

Court Proceedings (Delays) Bill 2023: Second Stage (Resumed) (30 May 2023)

Michael Healy-Rae: ...breach will attach to the State and not to any judge or court. The background to the origins of this Bill comes as legal cases are extensively delayed before being heard in a court in Ireland. The Government has recently found itself in extremely hot water in Europe over delays to court trials and has been forced to introduce this legislation and compensation mechanism to crack down on...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Report of the Commission on Taxation and Welfare: Discussion (Resumed) (15 Feb 2023)

Michael Healy-Rae: ...when it came to older people and pensions, to remember and never forget that a fiver a week to somebody on a pension can actually make a difference. My mother may have said that more to me in the years gone by, and nowadays perhaps €5 would not do much for a person. At the same time, when a person is on a fixed income, whatever that income is and especially if it is a pension, any...

Inshore Fishing: Motion [Private Members] (25 Jan 2023)

Michael Healy-Rae: ...opposition for not raising the issue of inshore fishermen enough. We are raising it today. We are giving the Minister an opportunity to do what we are looking for. Our motion aims to force the Government to finally act by allocating at least €12 million in funds to inshore shrimp and velvet crab fishermen from the €258 million available for the European Maritime, Fisheries...

Inshore Fishing: Motion [Private Members] (25 Jan 2023)

Michael Healy-Rae: ...The Minister boasted about the money he gave for piers in Donegal. There have been applications from County Kerry. A very small amount of money for our piers would help our fishermen to keep going. Kerry County Council put forward excellent proposal after proposal, but we have not received funding. I ask the Minister to support them. The main thrust of the argument today is to...

Forestry Sector: Motion [Private Members] (24 Jan 2023)

Michael Healy-Rae: ...Deputy Carthy and Sinn Féin for tabling this important motion. I was up in my office listening to the debate. It was ironic to hear the Minister of State criticising the motion her Government is going to support. If Deputy Carthy is going to accept that and not call a vote, the Rural Independent Group will call a vote on the motion on behalf of the people of Ireland, who are...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Forestry Strategic Vision: Coillte (13 Dec 2022)

Michael Healy-Rae: I welcome the witnesses. Jerry Donegan, God be good to him, was our local forester when I was growing up. He would be in a Hillman Hunter on a Friday in the middle of the day when I used to break out of school. He was my next-door neighbour. I used to sit into the passenger seat with a biscuit tin box full of brown envelopes. His job on that day would be to go around, paying the men. I...

Finance Bill 2022: Report Stage (23 Nov 2022)

Michael Healy-Rae: I support this amendment very much. A carbon tax increases the price of goods and services. By design, a carbon tax causes goods and services that involve higher levels of emissions to become relatively more expensive such that consumers will tend to buy less of them or substitute others that involve less carbon-intensive production. Hence, a carbon tax makes coal, oil, natural gas and the...