Results 61-80 of 7,247 for speaker:Michael Fitzmaurice

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Fuel Fraud: Revenue Commissioners (3 Dec 2014)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Everyone is being tarnished with the one brush at the moment. We need to start a process of elimination on who is being tarnished. I spoke with a person who works on the docks in Dublin. This person has been working on this for years. He leads me to believe that when the mix is done, it is a machine that comes out over the lorry and puts in the dye, and that there is no sampling from...

Water Services Bill 2014: Second Stage (Resumed) (4 Dec 2014)

Michael Fitzmaurice: The first thing to discuss in relation to water is its quality. The sad reality in Roscommon for the past few years has been that water quality has been disgraceful. We now see the problem extending to places like Williamstown. We hear Irish Water tell us that this, that and the other is being done, but sadly some of the objectives it says it will reach are unrealistic. Only yesterday, I...

Confidence in Taoiseach and Government: Motion (9 Dec 2014)

Michael Fitzmaurice: In 2011, the people, especially in the west, went to the polls in anticipation of a new era, a more transparent way with fewer quangos and a listening ear. A few months later that same year, in Roscommon, east Galway and Leitrim, the people who had received a commitment a few months earlier by letter and a recorded interview got the shock of their lives when they heard that the accident and...

Written Answers — Department of Environment, Community and Local Government: EU Regulations (9 Dec 2014)

Michael Fitzmaurice: 424. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the consultations that took place regarding the EU standard EN 1090 regarding structural steel and aluminium which came into effect in July 2014; if pre-legislative scrutiny took place; the groups which were consulted regarding its potential impact; his response to its introduction at each stage; and if he will make a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Dublin Port Company: Chairperson Designate (9 Dec 2014)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I wish Ms McCaffrey the best of luck. I am a new Deputy in the House and not as experienced as the wily old people beside me. Do staff from Dublin Port work together with the various people in all the ports around Ireland? Do they meet up? Do they have a common vision for the ports of the country? Is Ms McCaffrey simply punching for her neck of the woods around Dublin, which seems to be...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Dublin Port Company: Chairperson Designate (9 Dec 2014)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I was on about designation. There are designations around Dublin Port. Is that correct? I am referring to special areas of conservation. Does Ms McCaffrey know anything about that?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Dublin Port Company: Chairperson Designate (9 Dec 2014)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I have read of cases in Germany. I know at the moment in Galway Harbour this problem is causing tremendous difficulty. Considerable taxpayers' money is being spent on ludicrous legislation that has come through from Europe and it is costing jobs. Ms McCaffrey referred to Dublin Port growing to twice its current size. I have studied the issue around Ireland and I have seen what has...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Dublin Port Company: Chairperson Designate (9 Dec 2014)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Can Ms McCaffrey address the live cattle situation? There seems to be a problem because Dublin does not do it. Rosslare and Cork do it but there does not seem to be an appetite for live cattle being brought on boats. I am not talking about roll-on roll-off lorries, I am talking about cattle being driven onto the vessels.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Dublin Port Company: Chairperson Designate (9 Dec 2014)

Michael Fitzmaurice: In respect of the cost of transport and the overall cost of making it efficient, live shipping out of other ports has worked but it may be more accessible for midland counties to use Dublin Port. It would be good if there was a facility for it.

Homelessness: Statements (10 Dec 2014)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Like everybody else, I believe the moves the Minister made last week must be welcomed. It is a step in the right direction. There was a lot of focus on homelessness last week. For some people, having ten or 20 houses would not solve the underlying problem. Having experienced somebody belonging to me coming through a situation like this, I know that the underlying problems that must be...

Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2014)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I heard the Minister talk about a plebiscite. I got some legal advice on this as well. No Government can bind its successor. Nobody is accusing the Minister or this Government of privatising water tomorrow, next week or during its term but we must look to the future in five, ten or 15 years time. The only way we can guarantee this will not happen is through a referendum. A plebiscite...

Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2014)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I concur with everything Deputy Naughten said. He and I attended a meeting on this matter in Roscommon and, to be frank, I would be far more likely to believe the figures and dates supplied to us by Roscommon County Council than I would to believe the information provided by Irish Water. Deputy Naughten is 100% correct in what he said regarding temporary treatment plants. A boil water...

Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2014)

Michael Fitzmaurice: It is disingenuous to charge for wastewater removal in many parts of Ireland. I refer to a so-called SAC, about which environmentalists are great at talking and on which the EPA has done two reports. It is near Glenamaddy in County Galway and 200 tonnes of raw sewage is being pumped into it. People are being asked to pay for something, even though there is no treatment facility. The same...

Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2014)

Michael Fitzmaurice: The Minister has no one to support him in the Dáil. There is no one in the Government benches.

Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2014)

Michael Fitzmaurice: No matter how it is dressed up, there are 1.3 million primary residences, but on top of that, from the figures, there are something like 530,000 or 540,000 more which are rented. They are entitled to the grant as well. I think there are something like 1.85 million to 1.9 million homes under discussion, and there are something like 40,000 or 50,000 houses around the country which are second...

Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2014)

Michael Fitzmaurice: While I have not been a Member for a long time, for the people who may be looking at us, the one thing I would say is that there is no shame in not knowing something. Every Deputy needs clarification. I ask the House to agree to postpone the debate for the time being until we get the facts and figures for the benefit of everyone here and for the benefit of the country. Let us not be over...

Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2014)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Come on in, Deputy O’Dowd, all is forgiven. Tell us all.

Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (12 Dec 2014)

Michael Fitzmaurice: When one talks about forums, I recall the turf cutting issue several years ago when someone had the bright idea of a peatlands council in which stakeholders were invited to partake. It was the greatest quango and talking shop, as well as the most useless thing ever set up to resolve a problem. People drew expenses for travelling to council meetings. It has now even gone so far as people...

Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (12 Dec 2014)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Some 500,000 houses across the country are on group water schemes. They did not need a forum; they just rolled up their sleeves and got together. There was no huffing or puffing when they quietly put such water structures together in rural areas with the help of an organisation called the Water Federation. Water is a pretty simple commodity to handle, but we have made the task laborious...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Hen Harrier Special Protection Areas (16 Dec 2014)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I welcome the witnesses and thank them for the presentation. One might say that farmers did not know where to go for four years. I have seen parts of Ireland in which farmers did not know where to go for the past 17 years because of designations. We know that down through the years farmers and nature lived hand-in-hand. Fundamental environmentalism and ridiculous legislation now mean that...