Results 35,901-35,920 of 40,897 for speaker:Simon Coveney

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (11 Nov 2021)

Simon Coveney: As the Deputy probably knows, I have probably been more vocal on this issue than any other foreign minister on the planet. I was in the Middle East last week. I visited Israel, the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Jordan. I appeared on international and national media to voice my concern about the fact that the six Palestinian NGOs were effectively designated as terrorist organisations....

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (11 Nov 2021)

Simon Coveney: The local property tax, LPT, allocation for next year to Galway County Council is €14.5 million. That includes €2.7 million in equalisation funding. As the Deputy knows, it is open to councillors to decide whether they want to increase LPT rates. That has happened in Clare, Limerick, Donegal and Sligo, which have all decided to increase their rates by 15%. Mayo decided to...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (11 Nov 2021)

Simon Coveney: I understand the frustrations regarding the time it takes from route selection to the final delivery of a project of scale. We have a lot of experience of that in my constituency in the context of some TII projects there. I do not have the power to do what the Deputy is asking, but I will raise the matter with the line Minister.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (11 Nov 2021)

Simon Coveney: The Deputy is correct. It is difficult for me to give a comprehensive response within this timeline. I have been vocal on this matter and I have raised it directly with Israeli Government Ministers. The EU has also been quite vocal on this issue in terms of expressing concern. I have parliamentary questions on foreign affairs on Thursday next week and I would happily discuss it then....

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (11 Nov 2021)

Simon Coveney: That is a matter for the Business Committee.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (11 Nov 2021)

Simon Coveney: The short answer is that there is a lot going on, involving the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste, myself and others. Obviously, we are working with EU counterparts and speaking directly to the Biden administration. I got a chance to speak to one of President Biden's most senior advisers this week and to members of Congress, such as Congressman Brendan Boyle and others, at COP26. However, the...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (11 Nov 2021)

Simon Coveney: The Deputy kindly flagged that he was going to raise this issue. I am trying to get more detail about how best we can respond to it. Let us not forget that Childline is not a State agency. It is a service that gets some State funding, but it gets a lot of private funding as well. It is providing a very important service and we have to put some thought into how we can ensure that the...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (11 Nov 2021)

Simon Coveney: I will have to refer back to the Deputy with a date for the legislation. However, it is a clear commitment in the programme for Government on which we have to follow through.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (11 Nov 2021)

Simon Coveney: On those two suggestions, there is a strong historical link between the Air Corps and Knock in terms of using the airport's facilities for refuelling and conducting operations in the west of Ireland. When the Air Corps was central to the search and rescue, SAR, operations off the west coast, Knock was used as a strategic location. However, since the Air Corps withdrew from SAR operations in...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (11 Nov 2021)

Simon Coveney: In the recent budget there was an emphasis on trying to recognise the fact that there is fuel cost inflation and increased costs for families and homes. Independent assessments of the budget have shown that the Government is successfully compensating for that. We will keep this under review as we go through the winter in terms of the energy issues we discussed earlier.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (11 Nov 2021)

Simon Coveney: The staff complement will reach approximately 900 by February, which is an increase of about 450 from a month ago. I know that many Deputies are getting requests for help from families to get passports turned around quickly. There are all sorts of reasons for that, nearly all linked to the Covid pandemic. We are dramatically ramping up the human resources in the Passport Office. We have...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (11 Nov 2021)

Simon Coveney: This week in Glasgow we announced an additional €4.2 million for small island developing states in the Caribbean and Pacific. This will go to supports for catastrophe insurance and climate adaptation funds. We have given this significant commitment of more than doubling our climate finance as part of overseas development aid funding by 2025. We will go from spending €93...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (11 Nov 2021)

Simon Coveney: This is not the first time this issue has been raised and the Deputy is right to raise it. I will, of course, ask my colleague, the Minister for Health, to come back directly to him on the matter.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (11 Nov 2021)

Simon Coveney: Local authorities should make funding available for the upgrading of their housing stock. That is part of the management of that housing stock. I am not quite sure what the Deputy is referring to and whether he wants grant aid available for the tenants or for the local authorities. If there is a proposal for increased support for the local authority concerned, its senior management should...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (11 Nov 2021)

Simon Coveney: The climate action plan is not basing the targets for agriculture on reducing herd size. We are asking farmers to work with us on many other actions and there will be schemes to support them in adapting to those new asks to keep them in business and profitable, but we are not looking to reduce the herd size as a target measure. In places like west Cork and elsewhere, there are challenges...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (11 Nov 2021)

Simon Coveney: It was actually a kitten rather than a puppy in order to get my four-year-old to present some flowers to His Holiness the Pope when he got off the plane. She got stage fright and I had to bribe her with a kitten. Approximately 40 animal shelters offered me kittens, one of which I took and is now called Spirit or the Holy Spirit in my house. I have considerable sympathy for this issue....

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (11 Nov 2021)

Simon Coveney: That question is worthy of a two-hour debate, to be honest.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (11 Nov 2021)

Simon Coveney: We should have such a debate in this House. To respond quickly, the answer is "yes" but we must bring farmers with us on that journey. Anybody advocating to just leave farming alone and as it is, without changing anything, does not understand the kind of markets into which we sell our food around the world. The reason Ireland has a good reputation globally as a sustainable and...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (11 Nov 2021)

Simon Coveney: I do not accept this was an act of cronyism at all. This was a decision to put very well qualified people into very important roles. I am not committing the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, to anything. He is well able to speak for himself.