Results 3,461-3,480 of 3,772 for speaker:Michael Collins

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Issues Impacting the Fisheries Sector and Aquaculture: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (9 Oct 2024)

Michael Collins: I am going back to the first question I asked at the beginning. I thank Ms McSherry for answering the questions to the best of her ability. What can fishermen do to turn around the negative feeling that is out there? I know Ms McSherry will say she cannot answer that question but it was the last question asked in Bantry the other day. There is a negative vibe in the world of politics...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Issues Impacting the Fisheries Sector and Aquaculture: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (9 Oct 2024)

Michael Collins: I will make a final point which does not require an answer. From talking to inshore fishermen and to people in the pelagic sector, I know that they want to fish their way out of these problems. They do not want compensation. They just want to fish but they are not allowed in our water.

Planning and Development (An Taisce) Bill 2024: Second Stage [Private Members] (9 Oct 2024)

Michael Collins: The proposed legislation aims to limit An Taisce's influence in Ireland's planning and development process, especially in rural areas. It seeks to remove An Taisce as a prescribed authority under the Planning and Development Acts to address delays caused by its objections which have impacted housing and economic growth. The goal is to streamline the planning process, reduce bureaucratic...

Planning and Development (An Taisce) Bill 2024: Second Stage [Private Members] (9 Oct 2024)

Michael Collins: We did not interfere when you were speaking.

Planning and Development (An Taisce) Bill 2024: Second Stage [Private Members] (9 Oct 2024)

Michael Collins: Sit down and have manners.

Electricity Costs (Emergency Measures) Domestic Accounts Bill 2024: Second Stage (9 Oct 2024)

Michael Collins: I am not going to stand here and say people will not welcome the rebate for energy costs. Of course, they will welcome it in very difficult times with the rising costs of energy, which are sky-rocketing to an extraordinary level. Without the Government tackling the energy companies as to where they can make savings, I know people can make savings by ringing around. I contacted a telephone...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Pre-Agriculture and Fisheries Council: Discussion (16 Oct 2024)

Michael Collins: I welcome the Minister and the officials who are here today. The main bulk of my questions come from the fishing sector. Last week, when I met some officials I said I had been at a meeting a few days previously. It was the AGM of the Irish South and West Fish Producers Organisation. The best people to educate me are the fishermen on the ground. If we were speaking about farming, it would...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Pre-Agriculture and Fisheries Council: Discussion (16 Oct 2024)

Michael Collins: As I said, this is how the Brexit deal was done. Zonal attachment was used. Why can it not be the same when trying to protect our fishermen now? That is the argument they are making. It is reckless overfishing by Norway, the Faroes and Iceland. The Minister can put forward the argument that we are part of the EU, but why is the rest of the EU not putting sanctions in place to stop this?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Pre-Agriculture and Fisheries Council: Discussion (16 Oct 2024)

Michael Collins: If Irish fishermen do not come out well from this, it will lead to disaster. It is a disaster at present, as well the Minister knows. We have had many a debate on it. I mentioned this last week and there are loads of other issues on which the Minister is to come back to me - I accept that - but there is great frustration that there is a lack of communication. Apparently, there was a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Pre-Agriculture and Fisheries Council: Discussion (16 Oct 2024)

Michael Collins: I greatly appreciate that. There are other issues but I will not bring them up. I am to be contacted about them.

Social Welfare Bill 2024: Second Stage (15 Oct 2024)

Michael Collins: On carers, and it already has been mentioned to the Minister numerous times, there is no point in getting up to say the budget was all bad. That is wrong. The problem is that while there is a lot of money out there, it is pegged everywhere and there is no accountability as to where it ends up. The real bonanza is in the Minister's Department with all of the social welfare payments out...

VAT Rate for Hospitality Sector: Motion [Private Members] (16 Oct 2024)

Michael Collins: I thank the Acting Chair. First, I think Deputy Fitzmaurice and the Independent Group of Deputies for putting forward this very worthy motion at this time. The Minister of State should remember one thing which is that all of these restaurants, cafés, pubs and hairdressers are small businesses. That is why the Government has them crushed. It is trying to crush them out of business....

VAT Rate for Hospitality Sector: Motion [Private Members] (16 Oct 2024)

Michael Collins: They came up yesterday. In one minute I will give the Minister of State time to talk and I will not interrupt his talking. They came up here yesterday out of their goodwill and took another few pounds out of their pockets. They were brought up here a couple of days before the budget, the VAT 9 group, and were codded to their eyeball by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil. The Minister of...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (16 Oct 2024)

Michael Collins: In many parts of our country, infrastructure is greatly lacking, leaving many towns and villages dying a death and nowhere is this more evident than in west Cork. A complete lack of investment by successive Governments has left two bypasses promised to the people of Bandon unfinished, one bypass in Inishannon, not only unfinished but not even started, and a promised bypass for Bantry not...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (16 Oct 2024)

Michael Collins: I thank the Minister. What is wrong with Uisce Éireann? The Minister is saying the Government is pouring money in it. Even if it was moving at a snail's pace, some of these towns would have their wastewater treatment plants built, but it is not even moving at that pace. It cannot be money as in some of the towns I mentioned, we have offered co-funding to speed up the process and get...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (16 Oct 2024)

Michael Collins: It is.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (16 Oct 2024)

Michael Collins: No hope to these towns. Some have been waiting for 27 years.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (16 Oct 2024)

Michael Collins: Accountability.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (16 Oct 2024)

Michael Collins: We have been waiting for 27 years.

Finance Bill 2024: Second Stage (16 Oct 2024)

Michael Collins: When it comes to the Bill and when we looks at where money has gone in this country, I tried to get that conversation going today with the Minister, Deputy Paschal Donohoe, and he, of course, was not happy either because the Government has no accountability for quite a good deal of the money that is out there. There is a lot of money out there and there is no point in my saying that there is...