Results 1,341-1,360 of 3,652 for speaker:Michael Collins

Sea-Fisheries (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2021: Report and Final Stages (2 Feb 2022)

Michael Collins: I have two minutes to speak on this issue. I could spend an hour speaking on it. This Bill aims to criminalise the entire fisheries sector and creates an unequal and deeply unfair legal system for fishermen and women. Therefore, it is important for the Minister to support us on this amendment. He said that we are the last to bring in the penalty points system. We are the last when it...

Sea-Fisheries (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2021: Report and Final Stages (2 Feb 2022)

Michael Collins: I move amendment No. 1: In page 11, line 23, after “detects” to insert “, beyond a reasonable doubt,”. This amendment is about a sea infringement being beyond reasonable doubt to provide fairness and equality for fishers under the law and the Constitution, otherwise, the Government will create a new and dangerous precedent for treating fishers as second-class...

Animal Health and Welfare and Forestry (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2021: Report and Final Stages (2 Feb 2022)

Michael Collins: I will certainly support an amendment if it helps in some way to give more clarity to the forestry sector, especially to those who are supplying and working in it. We have gone through a horrendous year and a half with situations involving people that reach all the way back to the landowner. It is very simple. If people cannot fell their forest, they will not sow it. As previous speakers...

Higher Education Authority Bill 2022: Second Stage (Resumed) (2 Feb 2022)

Michael Collins: While I know it is not the Minister's area of responsibility, I will start by speaking on behalf of the students in my constituency who are not happy with the way they have been treated in relation to this year's leaving certificate. These students have been hugely impacted by Covid-19. They have had their senior cycle education totally disrupted. Some had underlying conditions which meant...

Easing of Covid-19 Restrictions: Statements (2 Feb 2022)

Michael Collins: Rural Ireland is likely to be disproportionately affected by the impact of Covid-19. An ambitious and co-ordinated tourism plan from public and private stakeholders must be considered to prevent the industry from faltering. Tourism was one of the first sectors hit by Covid-19. It is likely to be the last to recover. A co-ordinated plan is now required in the short term. A rapid and...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (2 Feb 2022)

Michael Collins: In the past few weeks, Cork County Council has rejected a planning application for almost 100 houses in Clonakilty. The reason for the refusal was the Irish Water report in the planning in which it stated that water supply deficiencies are too high in the Clonakilty area to allow extra development. In my time as a councillor between 2004 and 2016, water problems in Clonakilty were being...

Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service: Motion [Private Members] (1 Feb 2022)

Michael Collins: Mental health must become a national priority, as our country must face up to a crisis beyond any other we have ever had. The Rural Independent Group's pre-budget submission sought increased funding of at least €85 million for mental health services this year to deal with the emerging mental health crisis. The increased allocation by this Government is only half that of our...

Legacy Issues in Northern Ireland and New Decade, New Approach: Statements (1 Feb 2022)

Michael Collins: Between 1969 and 1999, approximately 3,500 people died as a result of political violence in Northern Ireland. The conflict, often referred to as the Troubles, has its origins in the 1921 division of Ireland and has reflected a struggle between different national, cultural and religious identities. There has been much discussion in the Republic about our own history, as we reach the 100th...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (1 Feb 2022)

Michael Collins: Last Friday Bridie Roycroft, postmistress of the ever-popular Ballydehob post office, posted a statement on social media stating that the sorting of post by postmen and postwomen in Ballydehob, Schull and Goleen post offices was now being moved to Skibbereen after decades of being done locally. This is another loss of income for postmasters in rural communities, who will lose a big chunk of...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (1 Feb 2022)

Michael Collins: I thank the Ceann Comhairle. We saw last week that the military exercise by the Russians off the south-west coast of Ireland was moved outside the exclusive economic zone, EEZ, only after the intervention of our fishermen with the Russians. We need a full debate on this issue in the Dáil on how, as with Brexit, our Government stood idly by while these fishermen's lives and livelihoods...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Abortion Services (1 Feb 2022)

Michael Collins: 806. To ask the Minister for Health if the recently-appointed Chair to lead the three-year review of abortion legislation was one of the small number of candidates he identified as suitable and invited to apply for the role; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5090/22]

Written Answers — Department of Health: Abortion Services (1 Feb 2022)

Michael Collins: 807. To ask the Minister for Health if the recently-appointed Chair of the three-year review of the 2018 abortion legislation successfully applied for this role given that the tender was not publicly made available through the e-tenders website and public procurement policy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5091/22]

National Broadband Plan: Statements (27 Jan 2022)

Michael Collins: The whole point is that, first, it does not look like the Minister of State has engaged properly with them. I respect that since he has plenty of time to do that in the days and hours ahead. The bottom line is we need to support the existing wireless operators. It was the same with previous Ministers. Nobody seems to care about this. The existing wireless operator can offer broadband...

National Broadband Plan: Statements (27 Jan 2022)

Michael Collins: Sorry, a Cheann Comhairle.

National Broadband Plan: Statements (27 Jan 2022)

Michael Collins: I am glad to have the opportunity to speak on broadband, a subject that has been spoken about in this House for many years. It is something that I became interested in from a community and voluntary perspective before I entered politics. We brought wireless-operated broadband to Goleen in Mizen Head, the last parish in Ireland, 15 or 16 years ago. We know some little thing about it; I am...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (27 Jan 2022)

Michael Collins: Last week, it was announced that front-line healthcare workers were to get a €1,000 bonus. Workers in nursing homes and hospitals are rightly in line for this bonus. It is glaringly obvious that one team of workers, home help workers and carers, have been omitted from this payment. Thousands of home help workers carried out Trojan work during the pandemic. They visited and cared...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Legislative Reviews (27 Jan 2022)

Michael Collins: 328. To ask the Minister for Health the reason that the e-tender for the selection of an independent chair to lead the three-year review was not posted on www.etenders.gov.ie despite his assurances to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health on 8 December 2021 that it would be published in the coming days; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3993/22]

Written Answers — Department of Health: Legislative Reviews (27 Jan 2022)

Michael Collins: 329. To ask the Minister for Health the criteria by which he identified candidates with suitable experience for the position of independent chair of the three-year review of the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018 and subsequently invited them to apply for the position; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3994/22]

Regulation of Providers of Building Works Bill 2022: Second Stage (Resumed) (26 Jan 2022)

Michael Collins: This Government states that this legislation is aimed at keeping so-called cowboy builders out of the industry so that everybody should be confident in the knowledge that their homes will be built to the highest standards and that any professional service they use is also of a certain standard. I sincerely hope that this Government’s aim to guard against a recurrence of housing...

Youth Mental Health: Statements (26 Jan 2022)

Michael Collins: Mental health must become a national priority as Ireland moves to a space where the pandemic has subsided. In its pre-budget submission, the Rural Independent Group sought an increase in funding of at least €85 million for mental health services this year to deal with the emerging mental health crisis in Ireland. Historical underinvestment has left us with mental health services that...