Results 3,861-3,880 of 3,902 for speaker:Michael Collins

Housing Finance Agency (Amendment) Bill 2025: Second Stage (14 Oct 2025)

Michael Collins: Independent Ireland welcomes this Bill. It is a short and narrow Bill but it will be an important one if it keeps the wheel turning for social and affordable housing. Independent Ireland will always support a measure that lets councils and housing bodies keep building but, let us be honest, this is a technical fix, not a housing plan. What is the Minister of State's plan? Today, I do...

Housing Finance Agency (Amendment) Bill 2025: Second Stage (14 Oct 2025)

Michael Collins: I have another minute. Good. Men and women are trying to get a start in life but are being refused in their first steps. It is nothing short of scandalous and the reasons for the refusals leave me scratching the back of my head. To my sincere embarrassment, I can look at a site and see holiday homes at sky level behind the site where the house is proposed to be built and they are being...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Flood Risk Management (15 Oct 2025)

Michael Collins: I thank the Minister of State for being here with us today to discuss a very important matter for the constituency of Cork South West, namely, the many areas of flooding and, in particular, the Bantry, Ballylickey and Ballinascarthy flood relief schemes. This morning, I was talking to somebody from Bantry. They said that in 1983, 42 years ago, they had to sit in a shop with their legs up in...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Flood Risk Management (15 Oct 2025)

Michael Collins: I thank the Minister of State for the reply but the problem here is that the can is being kicked down the road in relation to the Bantry flood scheme. It looks to me as if the Minister of State in charge of the OPW, whoever it may be, will be heading down to Bantry for the next six or seven years. I will be giving the same spin below, telling businesses that I am very sorry but we will have...

Reform of the Defective Concrete Redress Scheme: Motion [Private Members] (15 Oct 2025)

Michael Collins: I am in full support of this vital motion to reform the defective concrete redress scheme. Families across Ireland are living in homes that are crumbling around them - unsafe, uninsurable and unfit for human habitation. The current scheme is failing them. The appeals are delayed for years. Partial repairs are unsafe, and the financial burden is crushing. These families did nothing wrong,...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (15 Oct 2025)

Michael Collins: I have raised the proposed mussel farm in Kinsale with the Taoiseach before. This proposal, which will cover a vast area of sea, will have huge negative consequences for tourism, watersports and fishermen in the area. The guidelines must be changed. When I raised the Kinsale issue and formally called for change, my request was refused by the Minister, Michael Creed, at the time. The...

Confidence in the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade: Motion (15 Oct 2025)

Michael Collins: I would like to extend my deepest sympathies to Gillian and Stephen on the heartbreaking loss of their son Harvey. Harvey's story has touched the hearts of people throughout Ireland. He was a bright, brave young boy who endured immeasurable pain while waiting for care he desperately needed. No parent should have to fight for years to secure surgery for their child. No child should be...

Tillage Sector: Statements (15 Oct 2025)

Michael Collins: I have been requesting statements on tillage for the past few weeks. I acknowledge the Chief Whip for her help in making sure we got a chance to speak on behalf of Ireland's tillage farmers. It is an essential yet increasingly vulnerable part of our agricultural landscape. The tillage sector is in crisis. For the third consecutive year, farmers are facing financial losses. Despite their...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Apprenticeship Programmes (16 Oct 2025)

Michael Collins: 5. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the further actions he intends to take to increase craft apprenticeship participation given the additional funding announced in budget 2026 and the urgent need to increase the number of people qualified in the trades; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [56315/25]

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Apprenticeship Programmes (16 Oct 2025)

Michael Collins: I welcome the recent announcement of funding of €339 million for craft apprenticeships for 2025. It is my understanding that this funding will be used to support the expansion of training places, the recruitment and retention of instructors, and the provision of more places, especially in trades needed for housing infrastructure, including, as the Minister of State said, plumbers and...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Apprenticeship Programmes (16 Oct 2025)

Michael Collins: We are depending on migrant workers to build these houses. These workers have come from Poland, Latvia, Moldova, Bolivia, South Africa and other places across the world. As I said, there are 300,000 new homes needed by 2030 and there are 170,000 people working in construction, but 30,000 to 40,000 is a lot of people to be found between now and 2030. All these workers need to be trained....

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (16 Oct 2025)

Michael Collins: Today, I speak on behalf of Vera Twomey and her late daughter, Ava Barry. This is a story that embodies the courage of Irish families and the urgent need for compassionate healthcare reform. Ava suffered from Dravet syndrome and endured up to 500 seizures per month. When conventional treatments failed, Vera fought tirelessly for access to medicinal cannabis. She walked from Cork to...

Written Answers — Department of Defence: Maritime Jurisdiction (14 Oct 2025)

Michael Collins: 223. To ask the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence the total number of vessels that were found to have unlawfully entered Irish territorial waters or the States exclusive economic zone in each of the years 2020 to 2024 and to date in 2025; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [54660/25]

Written Answers — Department of Health: Abortion Services (14 Oct 2025)

Michael Collins: 893. To ask the Minister for Health the amount a GP is currently reimbursed for each abortion, after a claim for a woman's first consultation, after a claim for her second consultation; the other payments to the GP for further consultations; if these payments are liable for tax or are exempt from tax; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [55342/25]

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport: Rural Bus Transport: Discussion (15 Oct 2025)

Michael Collins: I welcome the witnesses. My questions are mainly about Local Link and Bus Éireann. It is hard to say anything about the CTTC because we are very lucky to have a great operator down there in west Cork. Damien Long has transformed transport throughout west Cork, from the city down to the deep ends of west Cork. Only for him, we would be in trouble. I am not being disrespectful to Bus...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport: Rural Bus Transport: Discussion (15 Oct 2025)

Michael Collins: The answer on Local Link could be very quick. Give me a name for Local Link and I will talk to someone.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport: Rural Bus Transport: Discussion (15 Oct 2025)

Michael Collins: I will start where I ended earlier on with Bus Éireann. I have a couple of questions in relation to a direct bus service between Clondalkin and DCU, which our local councillor, Linda de Courcy, has been very strong on. Will that direct route be reinstated rather than having to change over in the city? The issue of 70-year-olds is a bugbear of mine. A lot of bus services are being...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport: Rural Bus Transport: Discussion (15 Oct 2025)

Michael Collins: What about the over-70s?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport: Rural Bus Transport: Discussion (15 Oct 2025)

Michael Collins: Rural isolation is the other matter.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Apprenticeship Programmes (16 Oct 2025)

Michael Collins: 401. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills when his department WILL publish a renewed strategy to replace the Action Plan for Apprenticeship 2021-2025; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [56316/25]