Results 1-20 of 21 for waste management speaker:John Paul Phelan

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Local Area Plans (18 Dec 2019)

John Paul Phelan: ...facilities in the interest of sustainable development. The local area plan did not identify the lands adjacent to Hazelhatch train station for immediate development due, primarily, to flood management issues. Kildare County Council has engaged consultants to address the issue, with a final report due early next year. Notwithstanding this, the local area plan also identifies the key...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Commercial Rates Yield (19 Nov 2019)

John Paul Phelan: My Department works closely with the local government sector through the City and County Management Association (CCMA) in the preparation of a consistent and evidence based approach to the various funding challenges facing the sector. This work has helped inform the decision making process to ensure that a coherent and sector wide view of the particular issues are presented. Of course, all...

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Local Authority Rates (9 Oct 2019)

John Paul Phelan: Local authorities have powers to charge for the services they provide, including housing rents, waste charges, parking charges and planning application fees. Income from fees and charges are an important revenue source for local authorities. In most cases charges are set locally, although certain charges are fixed at national level. The setting and management of many charges are...

Water Services Bill 2017: Second Stage (Resumed) (18 Oct 2017)

John Paul Phelan: ...I thank the staff of Irish Water and the local authorities who are working, have been working in the past few days and will be working for the next few days to restore water services, including wastewater treatment, to houses and businesses across the country that have been affected by Storm Ophelia. It is only when major events like this happen that they receive the praise they rightly...

Environment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2011: Second Stage (14 Apr 2011)

John Paul Phelan: ...on the issue. However, it is no surprise to witness that level of hypocrisy. I welcome a couple of aspects of the Bill. Shortly after I was elected to Kilkenny County Council for the first time waste management and incineration became huge national issues. At the time the level of recycling being achieved by the local authority in Kilkenny and I am sure by local authorities in most...

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions (No. 2) Bill 2009: Second Stage (15 Dec 2009)

John Paul Phelan: ...not the discredited body FÁS has become. I say this, having expressed several times my regard for the work FÁS employees have done throughout the country. However, they were badly led by senior management, some members of which are still in office. Throwing another €56 million at that organisation after what has gone before is a step in the wrong direction. To describe the Bill as a...

Seanad: Farming and Agrifood Sector: Statements (9 Dec 2009)

John Paul Phelan: ...farmers, the early granting of the single farm payment, which I welcomed at the time, has seen the money spent on meeting overdrafts and loans into which many of them entered because of the farm waste management scheme. Financial institutions got their hands on that money straight away and it has not found its way into farmers' pockets. I deeply regret that NAMA will not lead to a...

Seanad: Rural Environment Protection Scheme (14 Jul 2009)

John Paul Phelan: ...by a number of cuts directed specifically at agriculture. Since the budget last October, the suckler cow welfare scheme payment has halved, there has been a change to the rules concerning the farm waste management scheme such that funding will be made available over three years, the installation aid and early retirement schemes have been suspended and forestry premiums have been cut...

Seanad: Economic and Recovery Authority: Motion (1 Apr 2009)

John Paul Phelan: ..., the New ERA investments will not count as Government expenditure as they will be financial investments seeking a commercial rate of return. An additional €11 billion in investment funds will be managed by the NewERA, on top of the outstanding €7 billion worth of NDP projects in the relevant areas. The NewERA will be funded from a contribution of sources, including: the National...

Seanad: FÁS: Statements (2 Dec 2008)

John Paul Phelan: ...for less than half the funding allocated to FÁS for the past 12 to 15 years. Where has the rest of the funding gone? There have been many stark revelations about wastage, particularly by top management in the organisation. I will not go into the nitty-gritty details of personal spending by individuals, but major questions have not yet been answered as to the relevant audit conditions...

Seanad: Order of Business (2 Dec 2008)

John Paul Phelan: ...for the Christmas recess, will the Leader ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food to come to the House? I acknowledged he attended recently for a fisheries debate. However, the farm waste management scheme is scheduled to cease at the end of the year and many farmers are in the middle of completing work. If the work is not completed by the end of the year, grants will not...

Seanad: National Waste Strategy: Statements (6 Feb 2008)

John Paul Phelan: ...was due to resume. I thank Senator Burke for sharing time. I have changed my position a little on incineration. However, I echo the sentiments of Senator Coffey and Senator Burke on the regional waste management strategies. The proposal that emerged when these strategies were drawn up was that there would be eight or nine incinerators, one in each regional authority area. It is clear...

Seanad: National Development Plan: Motion (7 Feb 2007)

John Paul Phelan: ...continuing care, but has spent only €844 million, 65% of what should have been delivered. The Government only spent 35% of the resources allocated in the last national development plan to water management and rehabilitation initiatives including water conservation programmes. The rural water investment scheme was also under-funded with only 54% of the original target realised. The...

Seanad: Waste Management: Statements. (17 May 2006)

John Paul Phelan: I welcome the Minister of State, whose opening remarks I did not hear. We have had a number of debates on the important issue of waste management in my four years in the Seanad. As a former member of a local authority, I am well aware of the difficulties that exist throughout the country with regard to the disposal of waste. A number of Senators on both sides have referred to the considerable...

Seanad: Tax Code: Motion. (2 Nov 2005)

John Paul Phelan: ...to claim full credit for that, as its members seem to be doing tonight and have done on many previous occasions. Senator Dardis referred continuously to efficiency and to the Government's efficient management of the economy. However, nothing could be further from the truth, particularly when the scandalous waste of public resources in various areas has been highlighted in recent months....

Seanad: Waste Management: Statements. (2 Mar 2005)

John Paul Phelan: ...Carlow, last weekend. A number of residents of that area asked me about the polluter pays principle. We all agree with the lofty and noble principle that those who are responsible for producing waste should foot the bill for its removal. Illegal dumping is getting out of control in many parts of the country, however. There is a considerable amount of State forestry in my local area and...

Seanad: Appropriation Act 2004: Statements. (8 Feb 2005)

John Paul Phelan: ...will not return. However, if 50 years ago one or two nuns could run a hospital in Kilkenny, I cannot see why one needs an army of public servants running around the corridors of hospitals trying to manage the medical service. It is being run into the ground by the degree of needless bureaucracy involved in the sector. Rather than the cutback in bureaucracy that we were promised by the...

Seanad: Public Finances: Motion. (12 May 2004)

John Paul Phelan: ...contends in its amendment. Senator Fitzgerald carried on in the same vein. It is extraordinary to have this debate given the recent fiasco with electronic voting which involved the most scandalous waste of public money which we have seen in a long time. It is extraordinary to have a two-hour debate during which Members opposite pat themselves on the back about how good the Government is at...

Seanad: Public Finances: Motion. (12 May 2004)

John Paul Phelan: Machines which will never be used are sitting in warehouses up and down the country at a cost of thousands of euro to store. Despite that, we are holding a debate on how well the Government is managing public finances. I noted Senator Fitzgerald's comment that each Minister is being held to account for the money he or she spends. Why has no one been held to account for the money which was...

Seanad: Waste Management: Statements (Resumed). (5 Nov 2003)

John Paul Phelan: I will be finished by then. I welcome this timely debate on waste management during which there have been a number of good contributions. I would like to take up some issues mentioned by speakers on the Government side. The principle which appears to guide waste management strategy throughout the country is that the polluter pays. This is laudable and people on all sides should have no...