Results 1-20 of 227 for going forward speaker:Martin Kenny

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Road Traffic Bill 2024: Committee Stage (28 Feb 2024)

Martin Kenny: ...this is a real definition of what we are talking about here. With regard to the issue around whether we are making the local authority bound to it, the Minister of State is really saying that the Government is not prepared to put the money forward. This is basically what it comes down to. This is about binding to it and this is what it is doing. It is making sure that it actually...

Healthcare Provision in Rural Communities: Motion [Private Members] (21 Feb 2024)

Martin Kenny: I thank the Rural Independents for bringing forward this motion. Rural healthcare, and particularly GP services, is in crisis across every constituency. Certainly across my constituency, we continually have people contacting our office. These are people who have moved into the area or who have moved from Dublin or abroad but they cannot get a GP. All of the GPs are full. That is the...

Commissions of Investigation (Amendment) Bill 2023: Second Stage [Private Members] (15 Feb 2024)

Martin Kenny: ...to them for half their lives and about the way they felt that society, the State, the church and everyone else treated them, which was so badly. They had hoped that something different was finally going to happen and that they would be listened to. Then the report came out. They looked at the contents, which did not match what they had told people. Then those who produced the report...

Recent Developments in Northern Ireland: Statements (14 Feb 2024)

Martin Kenny: ...the mark and show that we also will work to make that happen and provide for people. The reality is that the Good Friday Agreement delivered a peace, but delivering a lasting settlement that is going to be there forever requires work, ongoing work and continuous work. This is why it is so important that all aspects of politics on this island come together to ensure we give it the fair...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Large-scale Capital Projects: Transport Infrastructure Ireland (14 Feb 2024)

Martin Kenny: If a sound proposal is put forward and is going to roll forward, waiting for six to eight months for it to get the nod when there is no change or serious questions to be asked about it seems a little bit frustrating.

Coroners (Amendment) Bill 2024: Second Stage (8 Feb 2024)

Martin Kenny: The Bill is welcome. Sinn Féin will not oppose its passage. We hope to see it speedily go through the various Stages. On the Bill itself, we all recognise there have been serious issues with the Coroner Service, particularly with regard to delays. Dublin has been the victim of many of these problems. This legislation will deal with Dublin specifically or almost entirely. The issue...

Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman (Amendment) Bill 2023: Second Stage (8 Feb 2024)

Martin Kenny: We welcome many of the provisions in this Bill, and it goes some way to dealing with the difficulties people have. As Deputy Doherty has outlined, there are many people who are in serious difficulty and who are finding it hard to manage because their loans have been sold to vulture funds, which do not fall under this and do not have access to any recourse when they have a complaint or...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Road Safety (1 Feb 2024)

Martin Kenny: The difficulty here is that we do not believe that the projects you are putting forward are actually working and delivering. In The Irish Timesthis week we have seen a report that the Department of Transport wrote to the RSA in 2023 and asked for a plan in regard to enhanced road safety. It came back with that plan and the RSA looked for funding of €6 million to roll it out. The...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Large Energy Users Rebalancing Subvention: Discussion (23 Jan 2024)

Martin Kenny: I accept that and I am not disputing that industry can put forward a very valid argument for making changes at any time. It is its entitled to do that, to lobby and to seek relief wherever it can. The question here is about how appropriate it was to put this in place and that it would recur every year, with very little opportunity for review of its impact. Even when we produce legislation...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Defective Building Materials (18 Jan 2024)

Martin Kenny: I thank the Minister of State. First, we have learned nothing new. We are aware that this has happened and that on 26 September, Sligo County Council engaged with the Housing Agency and commenced its investigations. According to the last letter I got in early December, the report was in draft form. We now need to see the report being brought forward. I am concerned about the use of the...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Defective Building Materials (18 Jan 2024)

Martin Kenny: As the Minister of State is aware, County Sligo is one of the few counties in the western seaboard that has been left out of the defective concrete blocks grant scheme. Counties Mayo, Donegal and Clare are in the scheme. Over the decades, many people in west County Sligo bought their aggregate and concrete blocks from County Mayo. We know there was a particular quarry in County Mayo that...

Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Second Stage (23 Nov 2023)

Martin Kenny: ...carers and their getting access to the pension. We have also been calling for that for some time. I know it is something a lot of carers will be delighted to see happen. We need to see it move forward as quickly as possible. There is one issue we continually find when we talk about the small number of people who are on jobseeker's allowance. A lot of those people are on it...

Science Week: Statements (16 Nov 2023)

Martin Kenny: ...me to raise the issue of the payment that students receive, which is very poor in the circumstance of having to live in Dublin, particularly for people from outside the city. It is something the Government needs to take on because PhD students are talking about going on strike as a consequence. As we know, many PhD students in colleges and universities are the very ones who correct the...

Employment (Collective Redundancies and Miscellaneous Provisions) and Companies (Amendment) Bill 2023: Second Stage (15 Nov 2023)

Martin Kenny: We will be supporting this legislation with the issue of collective bargaining at its core. In many instances, companies have just wound up overnight with large numbers of people let go. We think of Debenhams, TalkTalk, Clerys and numerous others over the decades where similar things have happened. These people are left with very little hope and nowhere to turn. The only chance they have...

Defective Dwellings Bill 2021: Second Stage [Private Members] (9 Nov 2023)

Martin Kenny: I also commend Deputy Duffy on bringing forward this legislation. It goes back to the 1970s or before, when many of the houses that were built across the State were not up to standard. We see them all the time. All of us would have people coming into our constituency offices talking about mould growing in their houses and dampness coming up through the floor. Some of them have to buy a...

Road Safety: Statements (26 Oct 2023)

Martin Kenny: It is appropriate to recognise that last night there was another tragic death in Sligo, when a man on an e-scooter was killed. That brings the number of deaths on the roads this year to 155, which is the same number that we had for the entirety of last year. This is the tragedy that keeps coming at us. Every weekend or every couple of days, we hear of more people being killed on the roads....

Health Service Funding: Motion [Private Members] (24 Oct 2023)

Martin Kenny: The situation we have in health and the reckless underfunding of the health budget this year will have an effect the length and breadth of the country, nowhere more so than in my constituency of Sligo-Leitrim. As we know, the hospitals all along the western seaboard from Donegal to Limerick and including Sligo are those that have some of the highest rates of people waiting on trolleys to be...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Road Projects (22 Jun 2023)

Martin Kenny: Projects in the national development plan are the responsibility of the TII or some other body to develop, propose and move forward. We continually hear that the Minister cannot interfere in these projects because someone else is doing them. It is a case of God bless it and good luck to it but the Minister cannot get involved. That is basically the answer. The Minister then arrives at a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Security, Recruitment and Training at Dublin Airport: Discussion (14 Jun 2023)

Martin Kenny: ...the country at the moment and we expect that the number will exceed 1 million in 25 years. It is said that we need four workers for each pensioner, so we will need 4 million workers. We are not going to produce them in Ireland so they will have to come from elsewhere. They will need to have somewhere to live, but they are also going to travel more because a lot of them are not going to...