Results 3,181-3,200 of 4,154 for speaker:Martin Kenny

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Irish Air Navigation Service: Chairperson Designate (8 Nov 2023)

Martin Kenny: That is fine. Aviation in Dublin Airport is one of the key topics we have to discuss in this committee. We have a growing aviation sector. Ireland is an island. We will always need air travel. How much capacity is left in Dublin for the expansion of air travel on the island? The DAA will tell us there is any amount of capacity but we also have to recognise that there is and has to be...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Irish Air Navigation Service: Chairperson Designate (8 Nov 2023)

Martin Kenny: Are there safety issues around it?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Citizens' Assembly Report on Biodiversity Loss: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Nov 2023)

Martin Kenny: While much of the discussion is focused on where we can go from here and what is happening out there, geography and geology have a major part to play in all of this. In the part of the world I come from, farming is much less intensive and there are a lot of mountains, bogs and forestry. Much of this forestry has historically been Sitka spruce and issues around this have caused serious...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Citizens' Assembly Report on Biodiversity Loss: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Nov 2023)

Martin Kenny: When Dr. Bleasdale says it has to be in partnership and dialogue with them, is that about building consensus around that plan?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Citizens' Assembly Report on Biodiversity Loss: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Nov 2023)

Martin Kenny: I accept that. The examples given by Dr. Bleasdale are valid, particularly those in the context of the Burren and all those places where it has worked and continues to work. In the areas where farmers are farming intensively and doing very well, however, it will be difficult to change their practices unless they are given something very big. That is the difficulty. The reality is that as...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Citizens' Assembly Report on Biodiversity Loss: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Nov 2023)

Martin Kenny: Absolutely. Dr. Bleasdale referred to protecting species - birds and insects and getting down to the basis of it. I made the point to him previously that farmers currently need to have a certain number of livestock units to get their base payments and if a beehive, for instance, was considered a livestock unit, that could effect change. Not only would farmers have an interest in doing...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Citizens' Assembly Report on Biodiversity Loss: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Nov 2023)

Martin Kenny: A beehive could become a livestock unit. I am not saying an individual bee should be a livestock unit. That would be pushing it. We need to think outside the box. Unless we can get farmers to buy into this and see a role from which they can generate productivity, we will not be able to deliver. That is the reality. I know farmers in many parts of the country who keep a small amount of...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (15 Nov 2023)

Martin Kenny: I wish to raise with the Taoiseach an issue in my constituency with regard to Scoil Mhuire primary school in Carrick-on-Shannon. The board of management has been ten years looking to get a new school built. The school is split into two campuses. More than 500 children, many of them from various countries, attend the school. The Department of Education compiled a technical report in August...

Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2023: Second Stage (Resumed) (15 Nov 2023)

Martin Kenny: The Electoral Commission, in the new way it has been set up, is a huge advancement and improvement and we all recognise that. One issue in which we all have a great interest relates to the electoral register, who is on it and how that system has worked. It has always struck me down the years that when someone turns 18 years of age, the Department of Social Protection is able to write to the...

Employment (Collective Redundancies and Miscellaneous Provisions) and Companies (Amendment) Bill 2023: Second Stage (15 Nov 2023)

Martin Kenny: We will be supporting this legislation with the issue of collective bargaining at its core. In many instances, companies have just wound up overnight with large numbers of people let go. We think of Debenhams, TalkTalk, Clerys and numerous others over the decades where similar things have happened. These people are left with very little hope and nowhere to turn. The only chance they have...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Future Licences and Contracts to Connect Data Centres to the Gas Network: Discussion (15 Nov 2023)

Martin Kenny: I thank the Chair and thank the witnesses for their opening statements and the engagement so far. I want to focus on little part of all of this. I note Ms Donnelly, in her opening statement, said that "Battery storage using renewable electricity is key to decarbonising data centres and maximising the available renewables in the system." I assume that is available renewables for...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Future Licences and Contracts to Connect Data Centres to the Gas Network: Discussion (15 Nov 2023)

Martin Kenny: Is it prohibitive cost-wise or what are the main issues there? Is the investment there? Is there capacity within that sector to deliver? Dr. Gallagher said there are issues regarding regulation and so on but if all of those were ironed out, how fast could that be done?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Future Licences and Contracts to Connect Data Centres to the Gas Network: Discussion (15 Nov 2023)

Martin Kenny: In their infancy.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Future Licences and Contracts to Connect Data Centres to the Gas Network: Discussion (15 Nov 2023)

Martin Kenny: The other issue in regard to that, and I suppose it comes into it, is the interconnectivity where we connect into other countries' supplies of electricity. France is the one that we most recently heard about. What capacity does that give us, where does that put us or does it do very much really?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Future Licences and Contracts to Connect Data Centres to the Gas Network: Discussion (15 Nov 2023)

Martin Kenny: If the battery issue is not resolved, will interconnectivity fill that gap? According to Mr. Gannon's statement, it is not looking good at the moment.

Science Week: Statements (16 Nov 2023)

Martin Kenny: I am delighted to be here to make a statement on Science Week and on the importance of scientific and technological advances in our economy and society. My mother was born in 1932. She had osteoporosis as a child and spent several years in Cappagh Hospital from when she was seven until she was 11. The medicines that were available then were very poor compared to those for a child in a...

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (16 Nov 2023)

Martin Kenny: A future Minister is an unknown quantity. I thank the Minister of State for his opening statement and the detail he has gone into so far. I will go back to the business solar scheme, which there is great interest in. As the Minister of State said, a whole range of places, including even community centres, are looking at it. It is one of the things we can do that creates great buy-in...

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (16 Nov 2023)

Martin Kenny: What rate is the grant?

Select Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (16 Nov 2023)

Martin Kenny: How much does an applicant have to put up? If a community centre wanted to put solar panels on the roof, how much of the cost can it draw down?