Results 2,041-2,060 of 28,255 for speaker:Éamon Ó Cuív

Countryside Recreation Strategy. (28 Feb 2007)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I propose to take Questions Nos. 75, 102, 113, 114, 119, 130 and 141 together. Comhairle na Tuaithe presented its report on a national countryside recreation strategy to me in September 2006. The strategy defines the scope and vision for countryside recreation and sets out the broad principles under which sustainable countryside recreation can be managed into the future. It also sets out...

Countryside Recreation Strategy. (28 Feb 2007)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I cannot discuss specific forests but we want to develop a programme and my Department can play a role in the provision of capital rather than marketing. We feel marketing should be conducted by Fáilte Ireland or Tourism Ireland as they are the places everyone looks, both natives and visitors, when seeking to partake in tourism activities in Ireland. I am a great believer in the one stop...

Countryside Recreation Strategy. (28 Feb 2007)

Éamon Ó Cuív: We have done a great deal of work in this regard, though I cannot say I have an answer to the Deputy's specific question. We have had discussions with the IFA, the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association and the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers Association. I am going to the Sheep's Head Peninsula, Skibbereen, tomorrow and I intend to walk on the famous walkway there that seems to have...

Countryside Recreation Strategy. (28 Feb 2007)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I will try to answer all of the Deputy's questions. I envisage that a walk manager will have two functions. First, he or she will negotiate possible new walks in developing the product, working from home and using a mobile telephone. The walk manager's second function will be to avoid conflict. A person seeking information about walks in an area will be given the walk manager's telephone...

Irish Language. (28 Feb 2007)

Éamon Ó Cuív: As I have already indicated to the House, I have had discussions with the Minister for Education and Science on various occasions with regard to the development of an Irish language education centre at Baile Bhuirne, County Cork. Consultations have also taken place between officials of my Department and the Department of Education and Science with a view to progressing this matter. The...

Irish Language. (28 Feb 2007)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Deputy Kenny may not be aware that there is, as far as I understand, a coláiste leanúna in Coláiste Mhuire in Marino. The proposal is new and interesting and has not been made before with regard to Baile Bhuirne. I suggest the Deputy raise the matter with the Minister for Education and Science. It is interesting that I appear to receive more questions on this issue than the Minister for...

Irish Language. (28 Feb 2007)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Yes.

Irish Language. (28 Feb 2007)

Éamon Ó Cuív: The Deputy would get more useful answers by asking the relevant Minister, who has all the departmental files. My Department offered some capital finance to the project but we are only bit players. The Minister for Education and Science could give the Deputy chapter and verse because she has access to all the files. The Deputy is correct that it was proposed to provide a national education...

Irish Language. (28 Feb 2007)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Yes.

Irish Language. (28 Feb 2007)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I accept the Deputy's point. However, if a decision were made to establish another all-Irish teacher training college, the possible location would have to be examined. That is a matter for the Minister for Education and Science. I wish to make clear that Baile Bhuirne was not bought for a specific purpose, something that was controversial at the time. The property came on the market and we...

Rural Development. (28 Feb 2007)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I propose to take Questions Nos. 77, 91, 97 and 120 together. Rural areas will benefit from a broad range of expenditure under the national development plan, including water, roads, sanitary services, housing, regional airports and so on. The national rural development strategy is a small element of the total rural spend. It sets out national priorities for rural development programming...

Rural Development. (28 Feb 2007)

Éamon Ó Cuív: The IDA, Enterprise Ireland, the Western Development Commission, Údarás na Gaeltachta and the county development boards all have a remit for rural areas. Often the IDA concentrates on gateways but the other agencies operate across the State.

Rural Development. (28 Feb 2007)

Éamon Ó Cuív: It operates in Meath, Cork, Waterford, Mayo and Donegal. The Western Development Commission covers the Shannon and western areas and the county development boards cover the State. Everyone has access to development money. Leader companies have been doing good work at the micro level and have enjoyed quite a level of success. There was a constraining factor in that I decided at the...

Rural Development. (28 Feb 2007)

Éamon Ó Cuív: For many reasons, it would be impractical at present to use CIE school buses, one obvious reason being that most of them are too big to go down the bóithríní. It is no good leaving someone half a mile from his house. I want to make transport available to all rural people as it is made available without discrimination to all urban people. There should not be a means test or an age test to...

Rural Transport. (28 Feb 2007)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I propose to take Questions Nos. 78, 90, 92, 111, 124 and 128 together. As the Deputies are aware, generally in rural areas there are no public transport services at night. While in the more developed rural areas there are either hackney or taxi services, these are totally at the discretion of the providers of these services and do not provide a guaranteed service to rural people. There is...

Rural Transport. (28 Feb 2007)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I have evidence in an internal memo that we began consideration of it in November. On the day this became a major announcement, I was in Na Forbacha and a colleague issued a statement. TG4 contacted my office and my initial reaction was that I was very busy and did not have time to do an interview but I later changed my mind. I am often asked by TG4 to do interviews on many issues raised...

Rural Transport. (28 Feb 2007)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Thankfully, there is no need for that because the Government is already doing it. The Department of Transport does that and the allocation to the rural transport programme has been doubled. That programme does exactly as the Deputy has described — it brings people to their local town or village and it is locally driven. As the majority of its clientele is non-paying, it is much more...

Rural Transport. (28 Feb 2007)

Éamon Ó Cuív: The Ceann Comhairle will be interested in this example. Let us consider a hackney in Deputy English's area. For a small retainer, he is required to bring anybody from within a ten-mile radius to anywhere else in that area between the hours of 7 p.m. and 1 a.m. from Thursdays to Sundays. He would charge everybody apart from pensioners. However, we would pay him a retainer to prevent him...

Rail Network. (28 Feb 2007)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Line clearance works between Claremorris and Collooney, as funded by my Department, commenced in October 2006. A sum of €5 million has been provided to carry out the works associated with the preservation of the railway line to facilitate its possible reopening at a future date. To date, €1.3 million has been spent, predominantly on hedge cutting and cutting back the significant...

Rail Network. (28 Feb 2007)

Éamon Ó Cuív: As the Deputy knows, over the years those who want to knock the project have always said that if we went to open it we would find problems with the right of way or the way even though it was owned by Iarnród Éireann. The landowners have been magnificent. They have co-operated with what has been very dramatic work. It has been amazing to see the railway line reappear from the undergrowth....