Results 2,321-2,340 of 2,500 for speaker:Ciarán Cuffe

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2009 [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil]: Report and Final Stages (14 Jul 2010)

Ciarán Cuffe: These amendments deal with Part V of the planning Acts relating to taking in charge and housing supply provisions. Amendment No. 61 provides for an important change to section 96 of the principal Act. It will ensure the delivery options available under Part V, which deals with housing supply, will fully reflect the wider restructuring of the social housing investment programme. The shift...

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2009 [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil]: Report and Final Stages (14 Jul 2010)

Ciarán Cuffe: This grouping of five amendments relates to issues concerning An Bord Pleanála. They empower the Minister to appoint additional members urgently on a short-term basis to deal with areas of significant activity in the economy and empowers him to reduce membership where appropriate. We are also amending the principal Act, through section 106, to empower the Minister to appoint a person with...

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2009 [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil]: Report and Final Stages (14 Jul 2010)

Ciarán Cuffe: I am always cognisant that An Bord Pleanála is a quasi-judicial body and that it must carefully evaluate the case before it. For many, the board is the final adjudicator on their application or on an application in which they take an interest. The Bill introduces more flexibility to ramp up the staffing of the board at a time when it has a lot of cases or, conversely, when the demand is...

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2009 [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil]: Report and Final Stages (14 Jul 2010)

Ciarán Cuffe: Amendment No. 68 amends section 153 of the principal Act to increase the enforcement requirements on the planning authority. Amendment No. 69 makes a technical amendment to section 29-----

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2009 [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil]: Report and Final Stages (14 Jul 2010)

Ciarán Cuffe: I think someone heard Senator Norris. Amendment No. 69 makes a technical amendment to section 29(c) of the Planning and Development (Amendment) Act 2009, as passed by the Seanad, which increases the minimum fine on summary conviction under section 156(3)(b) of the principal Act from €635 to €5,000. Amendments Nos. 70 and 71 amend sections 157 and 160 of the principal Act, respectively,...

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2009 [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil]: Report and Final Stages (14 Jul 2010)

Ciarán Cuffe: This is like bingo night. Amendments Nos. 86 to 92, inclusive and amendment No. 105 technically amend sections 181A, 181B, 181C, 182A and 182C, of the principal Act to comply with the new appropriate assessment provisions being introduced in this Bill. Also under group 11, amendment No. 91 amends section 182C to provide that the board must determine that a proposed development satisfies the...

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2009 [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil]: Report and Final Stages (14 Jul 2010)

Ciarán Cuffe: The Acting Chairman has shown significant, if not exceptional, latitude in allowing speakers to raise significant issues in commenting on a new subsection, inserted in all three sections, which requires An Bord Pleanála to state the reasons for its decisions and it is attaching related conditions. The subsection also empowers it to recover its costs. In the interests of permitting...

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2009 [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil]: Report and Final Stages (14 Jul 2010)

Ciarán Cuffe: It is a challenge to respond to the judgment of the European Court of Justice, but a balance must be struck. We do not want to see the courts being clogged by judicial review proceedings. How can we strike the right balance? This brings us back to the definition of pro bono publico, which means one is acting for the public interest. We must wait and see how this works in practice. I hope...

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2009 [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil]: Report and Final Stages (14 Jul 2010)

Ciarán Cuffe: This final group of amendments are to a number of Schedules to the principal Act and a number of other Acts.

Seanad: Local Authority Funding (14 Jul 2010)

Ciarán Cuffe: Before I begin I would like to pay tribute to all the officials and staff who contributed to the Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill which was passed in the House earlier. I did not get an opportunity to put my thanks on the record of the House and I do so now. I am taking this Adjournment debate on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local...

Seanad: Local Authority Funding (14 Jul 2010)

Ciarán Cuffe: On that point, balance is only required at an overall level. There is considerable flexibility for local authorities to make decisions as to how they wish to minimise spending in some areas to maximise spending in other areas. We do not micro-manage the local authorities. We leave it to them to decide how they will spend their money. The local authority in this instance does intend...

Seanad: Semi-State Bodies (14 Jul 2010)

Ciarán Cuffe: The executive chairman of CIE, Dr. John Lynch, has regularly made himself available to the Joint Committee on Transport on a variety of issues relating to the CIE group. Since September 2009 he has appeared before the committee on four occasions. It is accepted practice that the chairman and chief executives of State companies appear as requested before Oireachtas committees to represent...

Seanad: Semi-State Bodies (14 Jul 2010)

Ciarán Cuffe: Simply to clarify, I repeat that in the 2008 Dublin Transport Authority Act, the Oireachtas provided under section 41 that the chairperson and chief executive would appear before Oireachtas committees, and no provision was made for entire boards or individual non-executive directors to appear before Oireachtas committees-----

Seanad: Semi-State Bodies (14 Jul 2010)

Ciarán Cuffe: I can only say that it would be inappropriate for the Minister for Transport to dismiss the non-executive directors of CIE.

Seanad: Semi-State Bodies (14 Jul 2010)

Ciarán Cuffe: I can only repeat what I stated already, that the legislation that governs this is the Dublin Transport Authority Act 2008, and that Act does not provided for the entire boards or individual non-executive directors to appear before Oireachtas committees.

Seanad: Supported Care Home Standards (14 Jul 2010)

Ciarán Cuffe: I am taking this Adjournment debate on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Mary Harney. The overarching policy of the Government is to support older people to live in dignity and independence in their own homes and communities for as long as possible and to support access to quality long-term residential care where this is appropriate. The Government places...

Seanad: Supported Care Home Standards (14 Jul 2010)

Ciarán Cuffe: I am unsure about that: our work will continue.

Written Answers — National Cycle Policy: National Cycle Policy (29 Sep 2010)

Ciarán Cuffe: Census 2006 showed that nationally 36,306 people cycled to work, representing a mode share of 2%. Since then, initiatives such as Workplace Travel Planning, the Green Schools Programme, new cycle routes and Dublin City Council's Dublinbikes Scheme have encouraged and supported cycling. Next year Census 2011 will provide a figure for cycling numbers and mode share, and I would expect to see...

Written Answers — Planning Issues: Planning Issues (29 Sep 2010)

Ciarán Cuffe: My Department is currently finalising the draft Guidelines for Planning Authorities on Spatial Planning and National Roads. These draft Guidelines are aimed at ensuring that roads planning and policy, and development planning and management processes are appropriately and effectively aligned, in order to guide development to the most suitable locations to maximise the investment in the...

Written Answers — Local Authority Funding: Local Authority Funding (29 Sep 2010)

Ciarán Cuffe: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1417 and 1490 together. I refer to the reply to Questions Nos. 537 and 538 of 8 July 2010. Each planning authority is required to include details of contributions received in that year, together with information on how the contributions have been expended, in the statutory annual accounts of the authority. A new requirement was introduced for the financial...