Results 21-40 of 3,774 for speaker:Martin Kenny

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (10 Jul 2024)

Martin Kenny: It is a brand-new facility.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (10 Jul 2024)

Martin Kenny: I raise with the Taoiseach the issue of Ballyshannon Community Hospital. After a long refurbishment project and the construction of a large extension, the hospital has reopened on the site of the old Sheil hospital in Ballyshannon. I attended the reopening with the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, and many other dignitaries. Everyone was there and everyone was delighted to see this new...

Inquiry into the death of Shane O'Farrell: Motion [Private Members] (9 Jul 2024)

Martin Kenny: I welcome Lucia and the O'Farrell family. This is not the first time they have been here. They have been here on many, many occasions. While I was a spokesperson on justice, I dealt with them on many occasions. I did so as well with other families and other situations that have a similar thread running through them. This thread is that in this State when something inappropriate happens,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Waterways Ireland: Discussion. (9 Jul 2024)

Martin Kenny: I thank Mr. Rowe for his opening statement. A couple of questions arise. Let us go back to the very large commercial developments that happened over the years. I accept many of them have been there for the best part of a generation in some cases. Mr. Rowe said 30 years and more. My limited knowledge of the civil law around this is that it is about whether a development is there without...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Waterways Ireland: Discussion. (9 Jul 2024)

Martin Kenny: I understand that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Waterways Ireland: Discussion. (9 Jul 2024)

Martin Kenny: I accept that. The anomaly here people cannot get their heads around is we have had all this happening for so long with, as Mr. Rowe says, little or nothing save the setting-up of a unit to deal with it only in the last 12 months, yet we have such a vigorous pursuit of people who have a boat on the river or who have a boat on the canal. We all know about the housing crisis in the country....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Waterways Ireland: Discussion. (9 Jul 2024)

Martin Kenny: All right. Mr. Rowe mentioned the user base earlier, I think in response to Deputy Creed. Waterways Ireland basically includes everybody, from people who walk along the river or canal to those who use it regularly to people who make their living from it. They are all part of the user base. Surely there has to be a distinction when it comes to use of the river. The "public good" delivered...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Waterways Ireland: Discussion. (9 Jul 2024)

Martin Kenny: It is ensuring there is public access and that public access is something that is there and is free and available to everyone. If I were to put a boat in Garadice Lough in County Leitrim, which the canal runs through, Mr. Rowe is telling me there is going to be a charge for it, yet if I go up the road and put a boat in Keeldra Lough, which is not part of the canal, there will be no charge....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Waterways Ireland: Discussion. (9 Jul 2024)

Martin Kenny: Mr. Rowe talks of the €200, but he says his organisation is reviewing that in the context of all the-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Waterways Ireland: Discussion. (9 Jul 2024)

Martin Kenny: -----the pressure that has come on. He says it is a while off going to the Department. How long is "a while off"? Are we talking about going into the next year or about a number of weeks or months?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Waterways Ireland: Discussion. (9 Jul 2024)

Martin Kenny: Returning to that, I live in an area which has a lot of boats. The Shannon flows through it. There is a general consensus among people in the tourism sector, restaurateurs and people in the bars, even in the smallest villages along the area, that there is not the number of people using the boats as in the past and that the number of people is well down and that certainly in the last decade,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Waterways Ireland: Discussion. (9 Jul 2024)

Martin Kenny: On the canals and people who live on them, I noted Mr. Rowe’s comment that he welcomes people coming to live on the canals and for people to live on boats. Again, the experience of people who have done or are doing that is that they do not feel very welcome.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Waterways Ireland: Discussion. (9 Jul 2024)

Martin Kenny: If Mr. Rowe is saying that Waterways Ireland welcomes all users, and there is an investment programme there to make services available, how appropriate is it to put charges in place before those services are available?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Waterways Ireland: Discussion. (9 Jul 2024)

Martin Kenny: On the number living on boats on the canals, particularly those in the city centre or near it, again, I expect the tragedy of last weekend is in almost everyone’s mind. What is Waterways Ireland’s position in relation to number of those boats that are available and expanding or growing that or curtailing it?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Waterways Ireland: Discussion. (9 Jul 2024)

Martin Kenny: To double it by when?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Waterways Ireland: Discussion. (9 Jul 2024)

Martin Kenny: I think we were clear that the by-laws will not go to the Department for some time. We are coming into holiday season. It is likely that we will be back sitting before it happens. It will more than likely be the middle of September by what I hear, because of the amount of work that is to be done. It would be appropriate before it went to the Department, if the committee was in agreement,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Waterways Ireland: Discussion. (9 Jul 2024)

Martin Kenny: I know I am not a member of the committee but I am just making the point.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Circular Economy as it relates to the Waste Sector: Discussion. (9 Jul 2024)

Martin Kenny: I will be brief. I thank the witnesses for their remarks. Returning to the issue of remunicipalisation or the councils going back to collecting the waste again, I do not think any of us see each local authority buying trucks, having a yard and bringing waste to it. That is probably unfeasible. However, there is a much greater role for local authorities in all that. We should be looking...