Results 281-300 of 2,180 for speaker:John Cummins

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Electoral Reform Bill 2020: Discussion (Resumed) (8 Jun 2021)

John Cummins: That is exactly it.

Seanad: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021: Second Stage (Resumed) (25 Jun 2021)

John Cummins: I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate. I thank the Minister for coming to the House today. I wish to compliment the very significant work that was done by colleagues across both Houses on the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Environment and Climate Action, with around 50 hours of discussion at pre-legislative scrutiny stage. I believe 78 recommendations were made, many of...

Seanad: Residential Tenancies (No. 2) Bill 2021: Second Stage (25 Jun 2021)

John Cummins: I welcome the Minister to the House. He is a regular visitor at this point, which shows the urgency the Government has placed and will continue to place on this area. At the beginning of the pandemic, the Government acted quickly to protect renters by introducing emergency legislation to freeze rents and temporarily ban evictions. We extended that prior to Christmas and, in March, we...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Fishing Industry (28 Jun 2021)

John Cummins: I welcome the Minister of State. It is unique to have a Senator responding to Commencement matters. At the outset, I acknowledge the recent announcement of €3.1 million for Dunmore East Harbour and other marine amenities in Waterford, including piers at Helvick, Tramore, Cheekpoint, Ballinacourty and the slipway at Bunmahon. This level of investment in our marine amenities is...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Fishing Industry (28 Jun 2021)

John Cummins: I thank the Minister of State for her response. I acknowledge what she stated, that Dunmore East is a location of strategic appropriateness and that it will be considered in the context of the ongoing review. I accept the lower volume of landings there compared with Howth, but given the fact that there is such a geographic gap between Howth and Castletownbere, in particular in terms of...

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (28 Jun 2021)

John Cummins: I thank the Minister of State for taking the amendment on board. It was something Senator Fitzpatrick and other Senators raised on Second Stage. As she says, it is a pragmatic approach to move towards a simple majority as opposed to the two-thirds majority required. It will be of assistance to local authority members across the country.

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (28 Jun 2021)

John Cummins: I will be brief. We need to be careful in our language here, particularly in saying that we are dropping below high standards. When we take a vote on legislation in this House, we have a simple majority. I do not hear anybody questioning that high bar of democratic voting processes we have in place in this House, or that is in place in houses across the world. I would ask that to be taken...

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (28 Jun 2021)

John Cummins: I will make a brief comment before the Minister of State responds. I am someone who sat on a local authority for 11 years. As other speakers have indicated, the agreement of a development plan is a reserved function of councillors that they take exceptionally seriously. We are not referring here to variations or deciding the detail of a development plan; this is purely about giving more...

Seanad: Planning and Development (Solar Panels for Public Buildings, Schools, Homes and Other Premises) (Amendment) Bill 2021: Second Stage (28 Jun 2021)

John Cummins: I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I commend my Green Party colleagues, Senators Pauline O’Reilly, Garvey and Martin, on bringing forward this Bill which will amend Parts 1 to 3, inclusive, of Schedule 2 to the Planning and Development Regulations in order to remove planning restrictions that relate to the installation of solar panels on public buildings, schools, homes,...

Seanad: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (2 Jul 2021)

John Cummins: I welcome the Minister, Deputy Ryan, to the House. I echo the comments made by many of my colleagues on these amendments. Senator Boyhan, who has left the Chamber, expressed concern about the time constraints but yet spent five minutes criticising Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil and questioning the validity of us standing up for rural Ireland and the agricultural community. I make...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (5 Jul 2021)

John Cummins: Today was due to be the day indoor hospitality reopened. We all know that last week a decision was made to pause that reopening, based on dire modelling figures presented to the Cabinet. Naturally, this has caused significant hurt and anger. I am especially sorry for those establishments which do not have outdoor seating areas and are restricted from even having limited opportunities to...

Seanad: Residential Tenancies (No. 2) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (5 Jul 2021)

John Cummins: I appreciate Senator Moynihan's point and acknowledge the response of the Minister, who has indicated he is considering wider protection in this space. It is a significant move to restrict deposits to the equivalent of two months' rent and the introduction of a deposit protection scheme is something I would like to see, if possible in the autumn. On Second Stage I suggested tying the...

Seanad: Residential Tenancies (No. 2) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (5 Jul 2021)

John Cummins: Now.

Seanad: Residential Tenancies (No. 2) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (5 Jul 2021)

John Cummins: Now.

Seanad: Residential Tenancies (No. 2) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (5 Jul 2021)

John Cummins: I will try to do the exact same thing. I compliment the Minister for initiating the Bill in this House. We absolutely look forward to more legislation being commenced in this House. It is always great to get unanimous approval for any legislation. It is the first time I have experienced that in my first year as a Senator. I hope there will be many more examples of it to come in the time...

Seanad: Residential Tenancies (No. 2) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (5 Jul 2021)

John Cummins: The Senator should impose time limits.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Electoral Reform Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (22 Jun 2021)

John Cummins: I echo some of the Chair's comments. It is regrettable some of the political parties refuse to take up an offer from this committee to come before it with regard to the groundbreaking and comprehensive electoral reform Bill before us. I compliment the Minister of State and his officials on their engagement with us. I raised some points at the outset of this pre-legislative scrutiny...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Electoral Reform Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (22 Jun 2021)

John Cummins: -----the PPS number and Revenue, it will leave us with a cohort of people. We should put a timeline of three months on that because we cannot allow the register to continue to be inaccurate. The register includes the names of many people who are deceased, which causes difficulties, and people who are no longer being at the relevant address. Has the data impact assessment the Data...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Electoral Reform Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (22 Jun 2021)

John Cummins: It appears from that response that PPS numbers are not linked to the system to enable names to be removed when somebody passes away. Without that, we will have that ambiguity. At times when there is uncertainty, the easy thing to do is leave the person on the register because we do not want to disenfranchise anybody. However, we must have certainty. I ask that this is fed into the data...

Seanad: Land Development Agency Bill 2021: Second Stage (9 Jul 2021)

John Cummins: I propose to share time with Senator Kyne, if that is agreeable. We will have five minutes and three minutes, respectively.