Results 3,341-3,360 of 27,613 for speaker:Heather Humphreys

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: National Archives (Amendment) Bill 2017: Discussion (1 Mar 2017)

Heather Humphreys: I understand it varies, but we can provide the committee with the information when it is sent to me.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: National Archives (Amendment) Bill 2017: Discussion (1 Mar 2017)

Heather Humphreys: Digital copyright is a matter for the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. The National Library has a statutory mandate to collect born-digital material. My Department is working with the library and will shortly carry out a public consultation on legal digital deposit. As the Senator knows, we have provided €10 million to the National Library to update its storage...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Sustaining Viable Rural Communities: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Mar 2017)

Heather Humphreys: I thank the committee for the opportunity to meet today to discuss what it takes to maintain a viable rural community. I know the committee has already met many rural stakeholders in respect of this matter. As the members of the committee will be well aware, I have lived and worked in rural Ireland for almost all of my life and I believe passionately in the potential of rural communities....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Sustaining Viable Rural Communities: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Mar 2017)

Heather Humphreys: I thank the Deputy and I agree with much of what he says, although not all of it. I live in rural Ireland and I particularly defend the right of rural people to live in their rural communities absolutely. I fought that fight many times on Monaghan County Council as well when directives came from the Government that there could be no one-off houses and areas should be under strong urban...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Sustaining Viable Rural Communities: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Mar 2017)

Heather Humphreys: Absolutely. It is something on which we can work. Credit unions have told us very clearly they have much funding and it is about tapping into that and working with them.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Sustaining Viable Rural Communities: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Mar 2017)

Heather Humphreys: No.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Sustaining Viable Rural Communities: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Mar 2017)

Heather Humphreys: Absolutely. There are initiatives through the likes of Enterprise Ireland and local enterprise offices. The Deputy is correct about the need to support indigenous industries.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Sustaining Viable Rural Communities: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Mar 2017)

Heather Humphreys: I absolutely agree with the Deputy. It is about finding the correct mechanism to do it. I support the principle that they should get all the support they can because the local indigenous industries are creating jobs. Three or four jobs in a local community are worth 50 or 100 jobs announced in big towns. They make the difference. We are investing in rural Ireland across the Government....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Sustaining Viable Rural Communities: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Mar 2017)

Heather Humphreys: I will start with the final question, as I am, obviously, very familiar with the Border. I absolutely agree with the idea of a Border development zone. It is well worth considering in the context of Brexit, which will clearly be felt more severely along the Border areas than elsewhere. We are looking at increasing tourism in rural areas. I have specifically proposed developing a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Sustaining Viable Rural Communities: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Mar 2017)

Heather Humphreys: That is a matter for the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment and we can raise it with him. The Chairman mentioned the NTA. It is expanding rural link services. It is about communities coming forward and indicating demand. In Cavan where I launched this, it goes not just into the town. It is going from, for example, from Butler's Bridge into Cavan town, right...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Sustaining Viable Rural Communities: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Mar 2017)

Heather Humphreys: I ask the Minister of State, Deputy Ring, to answer this.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Sustaining Viable Rural Communities: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Mar 2017)

Heather Humphreys: This plan will be measured by its impact on the people who live and work in rural Ireland. That will be the measure of its success. We will be developing indicators to measure the impacts and there is a monitoring committee set up, which will meet shortly. There are 276 actions in this plan. We will monitor them and the people in Departments and the Ministers who make promises will be...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Sustaining Viable Rural Communities: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Mar 2017)

Heather Humphreys: Pardon?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Sustaining Viable Rural Communities: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Mar 2017)

Heather Humphreys: I understand that the Department is going to publish the new broadband map that will show the areas that are not covered very shortly.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Sustaining Viable Rural Communities: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Mar 2017)

Heather Humphreys: I cannot give the Chairman the timescale.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Sustaining Viable Rural Communities: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Mar 2017)

Heather Humphreys: The Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment is working on the matter. The contract is complex and runs to somewhere in the region of 2,000 pages. The Department is working on the matter and I know it is a matter of urgency for it. I cannot give the Chairman a date or timescale. More houses are connected every day. We want to roll out broadband to areas that do not...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Sustaining Viable Rural Communities: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Mar 2017)

Heather Humphreys: I will answer the broadband query and the Minister of State, Deputy Ring, will answer the queries about the local improvement scheme. In Kerry, 42,800 premises have access to broadband and another 200 premises will have it in the next couple of weeks. The county is doing fairly well but there is always room for improvement. I have looked at the figures for other counties and know their...

Written Answers — Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht: Cultural Policy (2 Mar 2017)

Heather Humphreys: The Taoiseach and I launched the Creative Ireland Programme/Clár Éire Ildánach 2017 – 2022 on the 8 December 2016 as the Government Legacy Programme for Ireland 2016 and as the main implementation vehicle for the priorities identified in Culture 2025/ Éire Ildánach, the draft cultural policy which I published in July 2016. In Budget 2017, I secured €5m...

Written Answers — Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht: Arts Funding (2 Mar 2017)

Heather Humphreys: The Arts and Culture Capital Scheme was considerably over-subscribed. The Department received 106 applications in total under Stream 1 and 2 seeking total funding of over €20m with eligible requests for funding totalling over €14.6m. A total of 56 projects were selected for funding of €9m based on the detailed selection criteria and eligibility requirements which...

Written Answers — Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht: Rural Development Plan (2 Mar 2017)

Heather Humphreys: The Action Plan for Rural Development was launched on 23 January this year and includes many schemes and programmes for implementation across a range of Government Departments, State agencies and other organisations over the next three years. I assume the Deputy's question refers to the Town and Village Renewal Scheme which comes under my Department's remit. I have secured funding of...