Results 3,141-3,160 of 4,153 for speaker:Martin Kenny

Select Committee on Rural and Community Development: Estimates for Public Services 2018
Vote 42 - Rural and Community Development (Revised) (25 Apr 2018)

Martin Kenny: All of that is excellent and needs to happen, but the point I am making relates to a difficulty we have with tourism projects that make a significant difference in many places. Someone said to me recently that a lot of this stuff is for the benefit of people who make their money somewhere else and come to spend it in our local areas. We need stuff that allows people to make their money in...

Select Committee on Rural and Community Development: Estimates for Public Services 2018
Vote 42 - Rural and Community Development (Revised) (25 Apr 2018)

Martin Kenny: The Minister should not get me started on the digital hubs, given that the lack of broadband is a huge problem. It is the elephant in the room for rural Ireland.

Select Committee on Rural and Community Development: Estimates for Public Services 2018
Vote 42 - Rural and Community Development (Revised) (25 Apr 2018)

Martin Kenny: It is patchwork. There is a bit of broadband here and there. We are waiting to see how the gaps will be filled. It is really frustrating.

Select Committee on Rural and Community Development: Estimates for Public Services 2018
Vote 42 - Rural and Community Development (Revised) (25 Apr 2018)

Martin Kenny: On the issue of town and village renewal, there was a scheme for people who had a derelict house in a town and they could get €40,000 from the council to do it up. They had to rent the houses back to the local authority. The Minister of that Department at the time, Deputy Humphreys, had a scheme like that. It did not work because nobody took it up.

Select Committee on Rural and Community Development: Estimates for Public Services 2018
Vote 42 - Rural and Community Development (Revised) (25 Apr 2018)

Martin Kenny: There had to be a housing need in the area. It seemed to miss the point. The lesson was that some investment has to be put in. We need a grant where we tell people we will give them a 45% or 55% grant to do up the house. It has to be a grant of over 55% for a person to be able to borrow the rest and to be able to foresee getting the money back at some stage. If we do that, a person will...

Select Committee on Rural and Community Development: Estimates for Public Services 2018
Vote 42 - Rural and Community Development (Revised) (25 Apr 2018)

Martin Kenny: I was on the local authority in Leitrim for many years. The way it worked in Leitrim was that if one person applied to get a road done and was number ten and the next person who applied was down as number 11, then the person who was number ten came up on the list first and that person got the road done first. There was strict order. A person had to be living on the road or there had to be...

Select Committee on Rural and Community Development: Estimates for Public Services 2018
Vote 42 - Rural and Community Development (Revised) (25 Apr 2018)

Martin Kenny: I would caution against moving the scheme into the private sector. An excellent job is being done by most of the county councils. While I understand efficiencies need to be made, I think the local authorities know the roads best. They are working in these areas and should continue to do that work.

Select Committee on Rural and Community Development: Estimates for Public Services 2018
Vote 42 - Rural and Community Development (Revised) (25 Apr 2018)

Martin Kenny: Yes, I support it.

Select Committee on Rural and Community Development: Estimates for Public Services 2018
Vote 42 - Rural and Community Development (Revised) (25 Apr 2018)

Martin Kenny: Is there some statutory reason for us to read through them? Is the Chairman saying that we cannot just agree them?

Select Committee on Rural and Community Development: Estimates for Public Services 2018
Vote 42 - Rural and Community Development (Revised) (25 Apr 2018)

Martin Kenny: We can give them ten minutes each.

Select Committee on Rural and Community Development: Estimates for Public Services 2018
Vote 42 - Rural and Community Development (Revised) (25 Apr 2018)

Martin Kenny: If that is what we need to do, we can do that.

Select Committee on Rural and Community Development: Estimates for Public Services 2018
Vote 42 - Rural and Community Development (Revised) (25 Apr 2018)

Martin Kenny: I agree.

Select Committee on Rural and Community Development: Estimates for Public Services 2018
Vote 42 - Rural and Community Development (Revised) (25 Apr 2018)

Martin Kenny: What about in the next few weeks?

Nurses' and Midwives' Pay and Recruitment: Motion [Private Members] (25 Apr 2018)

Martin Kenny: It is very clear that there is a crisis in our health service. Everyone is aware of that. The crisis in the health service is reflected in the issue of retaining our nursing staff. Everything is connected. There is a crisis in housing; people cannot afford houses. Nurses cannot afford to pay rent in this city or in many other parts of the country. There is a crisis in childcare, which...

Topical Issue Debate: Brexit Issues (25 Apr 2018)

Martin Kenny: Sinn Féin appreciates the that Government is doing its best in its dealings with the Tory Government in the UK. My party had the same experience and we understand how difficult it can be to deal with a Tory Government. What is needed is a flow of information and the application of maximum pressure in the interests of Irish citizens, both those living on this island and the millions...

Topical Issue Debate: Brexit Issues (25 Apr 2018)

Martin Kenny: I live in a Border county. My constituency stretches from Belturbet in County Cavan right around to Pettigo in County Donegal and it takes up almost a third of the Border. It is ironic that today, Mrs. Theresa Villiers, MP, is introducing a Bill in the House of Commons to prevent live imports from outside the UK after Brexit. If a person from County Leitrim or County Cavan bought a couple...

Questions on Promised Legislation (25 Apr 2018)

Martin Kenny: This morning, in Buswells Hotel, the Irish Farmers' Association held a briefing on vulture funds which are selling many farms around the country. It is a terrible situation. The Irish Farmers' Association, IFA, says it has become increasingly frustrated by the tactics of the vulture funds, which are forcing quick farm sales without the agreement of the farmer. The IFA is really saying it...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Sheep Welfare Scheme (25 Apr 2018)

Martin Kenny: 193. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if the advance payment for the sheep welfare scheme 2017 will issue to a person (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18301/18]

Community Employment Pension Scheme: Motion [Private Members] (24 Apr 2018)

Martin Kenny: Again, we will be supporting the motion tonight. The reality is that we should not be here at all. That is very clear. There should not have been a Labour Court recommendation. The Government should have dealt with this in the very beginning. From the very outset, when the CE schemes were set up and the whole process was put in place, the supervisors and the people who worked on those...

Questions on Promised Legislation (24 Apr 2018)

Martin Kenny: In the north west, the diabetic services in Sligo University Hospital are housed in a small portakabin. I met people there a couple of weeks ago. Proposals to build a new facility for them are in place. These patients are mainly people with type 1 diabetes and they urgently need this to be put in place as quickly as possible. The services there are totally inadequate. They are meeting in...