Results 641-660 of 3,652 for speaker:Michael Collins

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Leader Programmes Funding (14 Jun 2018)

Michael Collins: 212. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development the steps he will take to ensure that Leader funding is not politicised (details supplied). [26020/18]

Dublin Fire Brigade: Motion [Private Members] (19 Jun 2018)

Michael Collins: I am grateful for the opportunity to speak on this motion today. First, I commend the work of the fire brigade service, many of whose members are in the Gallery, on providing a crucial service to the citizens of Dublin city and county. While I am from west Cork, most weeks I spend three days in Dublin and I may well need the fire brigade service at some stage. While tonight's issues are...

Questions on Promised Legislation (20 Jun 2018)

Michael Collins: My question is related to page 160 of the programme for Government which deals with local authority reform. Last week the people of west Cork received a draft of the new local authority boundary changes and I sincerely hope it is a draft. Submissions which other representatives and I, as well as local communities, have made have been totally ignored as areas such as Courtmacsherry,...

Health Waiting Lists: Motion [Private Members] (20 Jun 2018)

Michael Collins: I want to express my utter disappointment that this country's excessive waiting lists have continued since well before I was elected to this House. People of all ages are having to wait for unacceptable lengths of time. My offices are inundated with people who are suffering with medical conditions and are looking for help because they have been on waiting lists for excessive periods of...

Summer Economic Statement 2018: Statements (20 Jun 2018)

Michael Collins: I am grateful for the opportunity to speak on the Summer economic statement. Here we are again, as Deputy Mattie McGrath said. I am looking at the Minister's statement which refers to jobs and the low unemployment rate but behind the spin, the reality is that people are being forced to work for low wages. More are forced out to Turas Nua to doctor the figures. A recent report indicated...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Rural and Community Development: Rural Transport Policy: Discussion (Resumed) (20 Jun 2018)

Michael Collins: I thank the witnesses for attending this morning and affording us this opportunity to raise some issues - some of which are positive and others which are not. I will start with the night time rural transport service the Minister announced recently. Initially, the sum of €200,000 was mentioned but that was never going to cover all rural areas. However, it was a start in the right...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Rural and Community Development: Rural Transport Policy: Discussion (Resumed) (20 Jun 2018)

Michael Collins: On a service for people with disabilities, Ms Graham said we should talk to the local manager. There is no better person to talk to in Cork but the problem is too widespread for him to cope with. We could be talking about 150 or 200 individuals. I cannot put a figure on it but I know that a huge number of people are affected. We have had discussions on this and the HSE needs to come on...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: The Arts for All: Discussion (20 Jun 2018)

Michael Collins: I thank the Chairman, the clerk and everyone else involved for facilitating all of the groups in coming here to educate us. Sometimes we live in a bubble and do not know what is happening in the real world. It is the real world that brings most of us here. The evidence given by so many of the groups has been an education for me and all of us. The McAuley Centre is a place I would really...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: The Arts for All: Discussion (20 Jun 2018)

Michael Collins: The Bealtaine Festival is very specific, but the arts are so important for people with a disability. Having never understood what they were, I have seen so many people in local community hospitals become involved in the arts. They find so much joy in places such as Schull, Skibbereen, Bantry Hospital, Bandon, Kinsale and Dunmanway. I have seen them in community hospitals and nursing homes...

Questions on Promised Legislation (21 Jun 2018)

Michael Collins: In the programme for Government, under crime and prevention, the Government promised to reopen some Garda stations which had been closed by the previous Government. On 19 December 2017, the Government announced the reopening of six Garda stations, including Ballinspittle Garda station in my constituency. When will Ballinspittle Garda station in west Cork be open to the public? People are...

Leaders' Questions (26 Jun 2018)

Michael Collins: Is the Taoiseach aware that we are on the verge of one of the biggest experimental marine destruction journeys in Ireland, the UK and Europe? I am referring to the proposed mechanical harvesting of kelp in Bantry Bay, which is supposed to commence on Wednesday next. Last week, the company carrying out this mechanical harvesting issued a letter to the Department of Housing, Planning and...

Leaders' Questions (26 Jun 2018)

Michael Collins: I thank the Taoiseach. I appreciate he may not be fully aware of this circumstance, but I saw the Minister of State, Deputy Daly, giving him plenty of prompts when I was speaking earlier. I wish he gave him plenty of prompts over the past 12 months because that is what was needed but, unfortunately, that is not the case. The Taoiseach said a legal case is being brought but I ask the...

Special Needs Assistants: Motion [Private Members] (26 Jun 2018)

Michael Collins: I thank Mairead McGrath for helping us put this motion together. My colleagues and I in the Rural Independent Group have called on the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Richard Bruton, to acknowledge a lack of job security for special needs assistants and to look at the obstacles preventing the full participation of special needs assistants in schools. We have to ask if our...

Special Needs Assistants: Motion [Private Members] (26 Jun 2018)

Michael Collins: Shame on that Deputy. The comments were shameful as neither I nor the other two Deputies mentioned voted against any special needs provision. All I wanted was for the Deputy, and her fellow Deputies, to come here and to debate such a very important issue that was going through the Dáil without question.

Special Needs Assistants: Motion [Private Members] (26 Jun 2018)

Michael Collins: I continually-----

Special Needs Assistants: Motion [Private Members] (26 Jun 2018)

Michael Collins: Deputy Funchion cannot tell us what we were going to do.

Special Needs Assistants: Motion [Private Members] (26 Jun 2018)

Michael Collins: Deputy Funchion is misleading again.

Special Needs Assistants: Motion [Private Members] (26 Jun 2018)

Michael Collins: Deputy Funchion was continuously on Twitter - she should stop playing with phones if she does not know how to use them.

Special Needs Assistants: Motion [Private Members] (26 Jun 2018)

Michael Collins: Where is Sinn Féin again tonight? Only three of its Deputies are here on such an important issue.

Special Needs Assistants: Motion [Private Members] (26 Jun 2018)

Michael Collins: I am continuously meeting with people in my own constituency-----