Results 21,181-21,200 of 28,255 for speaker:Éamon Ó Cuív

Select Committee on Rural and Community Development: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 42 - Rural and Community Development (Further Revised) (3 Apr 2019)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I kept my questions fairly short but the Minister is giving me very comprehensive answers.

Select Committee on Rural and Community Development: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 42 - Rural and Community Development (Further Revised) (3 Apr 2019)

Éamon Ó Cuív: The Minister mentioned Ballinrobe which, as he and I both know, reflects a typical conundrum. The population of the town has increased significantly, with housing estates all over the edge of the town. There is more employment in the area than there ever was, thank God, thanks to McHale, ECC Timber Products and other companies. While the main street is maith go leor, the street leading off...

Select Committee on Rural and Community Development: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 42 - Rural and Community Development (Further Revised) (3 Apr 2019)

Éamon Ó Cuív: From A to Z in the programme works out, on average, at about 20%.

Select Committee on Rural and Community Development: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 42 - Rural and Community Development (Further Revised) (3 Apr 2019)

Éamon Ó Cuív: That would also be my preference and I would back the Minister in that regard.

Select Committee on Rural and Community Development: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 42 - Rural and Community Development (Further Revised) (3 Apr 2019)

Éamon Ó Cuív: That is what I am talking about. I do not think the Minister of State was in the room at the time. The point was made-----

Select Committee on Rural and Community Development: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 42 - Rural and Community Development (Further Revised) (3 Apr 2019)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Projects came in and got scattered but the clear focus of the management the other day was very much on the large towns. I listened carefully and they spoke about two places in Connemara - An Cheathrú Rua and An Clochán - and that was it. It was argued that we could not spread the jam too thin. That worries me because that is a very common syndrome. Even when I look at the stuff...

Select Committee on Rural and Community Development: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 42 - Rural and Community Development (Further Revised) (3 Apr 2019)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Exactly.

Select Committee on Rural and Community Development: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 42 - Rural and Community Development (Further Revised) (3 Apr 2019)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I just want to be clear. I was not faulting the Minister. I was saying that from what I am hearing from the local authorities, and the Chairman knows I was concerned the other day when we were in Waterford, I fear they are reading the Government plan as being an agglomeration plan into the biggest places with a hierarchy starting off with Dublin, Galway and Limerick and then working out to...

Select Committee on Rural and Community Development: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 42 - Rural and Community Development (Further Revised) (3 Apr 2019)

Éamon Ó Cuív: On dormant accounts, how much of the money is going to State agencies and so on to spend and how much is going to community groups? The funding was intended originally to go to community groups in the main. I refer to the community services programme. I understand each company must now top up the wage by €2,000. Up to 2012, there was a euro-for-euro refund of all wage costs,...

Select Committee on Rural and Community Development: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 42 - Rural and Community Development (Further Revised) (3 Apr 2019)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I know, but the challenge in these schemes is to get an increase in funding so that the numbers can increase. When the Minister speaks to the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection, he can argue that, if he increased the number by 1,000, all he would need would be to show the net saving on the farm assist scheme versus the RSI. That would be a problem if the programmes were...

Select Committee on Rural and Community Development: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 42 - Rural and Community Development (Further Revised) (3 Apr 2019)

Éamon Ó Cuív: It seems there is a lack of proportionality in the way the Charities Regulator deals with big groups and small groups. It was necessary to introduce regulation but I always had reservations in that community trust is fundamental in so many small local charities around the country. I refer to where the community knows the individuals concerned. Applying the same criteria to small local...

Select Committee on Rural and Community Development: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 42 - Rural and Community Development (Further Revised) (3 Apr 2019)

Éamon Ó Cuív: There are small charities in various areas, including mine, that are providing services for the elderly. Everybody knows the people in question and there is no question of having to identify them. They might need a small grant from the HSE, for example, and they are asked for a charity number. Then they are told to form a company and then they have accounts audited. The charity might be...

Select Committee on Rural and Community Development: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 42 - Rural and Community Development (Further Revised) (3 Apr 2019)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I am not saying that. I am talking about size.

Select Committee on Rural and Community Development: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 42 - Rural and Community Development (Further Revised) (3 Apr 2019)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I do not want to hold up the meeting. What I see happening here is akin to what happened in the banking sector. The big banks lost a few hundred billion euro and we then introduced a whole lot of regulations for credit unions that removed their community element. We are trying to turn them into mini banks even though they did not lose any of the money about which we are talking. What went...

Select Committee on Rural and Community Development: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 42 - Rural and Community Development (Further Revised) (3 Apr 2019)

Éamon Ó Cuív: We are told all the time there is consultation with the sector.

Select Committee on Rural and Community Development: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 42 - Rural and Community Development (Further Revised) (3 Apr 2019)

Éamon Ó Cuív: That reminds me of an answer I got yesterday or today from the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government on the Flemish decree. I asked whether there would be public consultation on the new rural planning arrangements. He said there would not. He told me the Department had already consulted the local authorities but what he meant was that it had consulted senior planners in the...

Select Committee on Rural and Community Development: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 42 - Rural and Community Development (Further Revised) (3 Apr 2019)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I will make a final point. I contacted the regulator on behalf of a community group. Unfortunately, I do not have the reply with me but basically I was told it could not talk to me. The community group in question was aware that I have experience in administration and it asked me to call the regulator to find out exactly what it needed. It is time that State agencies did what all...

Select Committee on Rural and Community Development: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 42 - Rural and Community Development (Further Revised) (3 Apr 2019)

Éamon Ó Cuív: When a Deputy tables a parliamentary question about an individual to the Department of Employment and Social Protection, the Department replies because there is a presumption in law that, provided the Deputy has evidence to show he or she is acting on behalf of the individual in question, we can, under data protection, be given an answer because we are elected public representatives. The...

Select Committee on Rural and Community Development: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 42 - Rural and Community Development (Further Revised) (3 Apr 2019)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I definitely would.

Select Committee on Rural and Community Development: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 42 - Rural and Community Development (Further Revised) (3 Apr 2019)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I have one question. I see €50.177 million in the further Revised Estimate for the western investment fund, WIF, and the WIF revolving fund. Is it expected that €50 million will be invested by the WIF this year? Is that the target? I will be delighted if that is the case.