Results 941-960 of 6,944 for speaker:Michael McNamara

Topical Issue Debate: Food Quality Assurance Scheme (19 Nov 2014)

Michael McNamara: First, I should outline what the quality assurance scheme is, as many Members of the House are not acquainted with it. The quality assurance scheme was developed by Bord Bia, and it is important to bear in mind that this is a State agency, because the cost of developing this scheme was borne by the State. It is an excellent initiative because it ensures that quality-assured food that is...

Topical Issue Debate: Food Quality Assurance Scheme (19 Nov 2014)

Michael McNamara: It is clear that the Minister of State and I agree on the importance of the quality assurance scheme. Deputy Paul J. Connaughton, who is present, is equally aware of its importance. However, the Minister of State says it is not subject to abuse and that farmers have confidence in it. I cannot agree with him. Mr. Michael Maloney, the Bord Bia official in charge of the scheme, has said we...

Water Sector Reforms: Motion (Resumed) (20 Nov 2014)

Michael McNamara: Listening to what Deputy Billy Kelleher said, I was reminded of the words of an Irish dramatist of considerable genius, Samuel Beckett.

Water Sector Reforms: Motion (Resumed) (20 Nov 2014)

Michael McNamara: You are very welcome. Like the Deputy, Samuel Beckett acknowledged that it is very difficult to judge what happens today, that only in hindsight can one judge things. He said:Let us not speak ill of our generation, it is not any unhappier than its predecessors. Let us not speak well of it either. Let us not speak of it at all. It is true that the population has increased. That is the...

Water Sector Reforms: Motion (Resumed) (20 Nov 2014)

Michael McNamara: I was going to say it is a little bit like Irish Water, and maybe Fine Gael and the Labour Party, to a degree, are like the two protagonists on stage. They struggle forward and they struggle with the great existential angst of their time, and eventually they decide-----

Water Sector Reforms: Motion (Resumed) (20 Nov 2014)

Michael McNamara: I am using my ten minutes. They decide they have to go on and they have to struggle, and they do, in much the way that Governments tend to do.

Water Sector Reforms: Motion (Resumed) (20 Nov 2014)

Michael McNamara: Perhaps at considerably less expense than the tragicomedy of the two shades of green which preceded the Government.

Water Sector Reforms: Motion (Resumed) (20 Nov 2014)

Michael McNamara: There may have been emotional expense, but considerably less financial expense will be incurred. At least this show, if it can be reduced to such a cynical metaphor, will not bring the company down. We will not have to have outside intervention at the end of it all, hopefully. As with any tragicomedy, there are serious undertones and issues. Water and the necessity of dealing with it are...

Water Sector Reforms: Motion (Resumed) (20 Nov 2014)

Michael McNamara: Deputy Cowen was not in government at the time but still supported the Government. Deputies voted to transfer responsibility for water services provision from local authorities to a water utility and to prepare proposals for implementation, as appropriate, with a view to commencing charges in 2012-13. All of that happened after 1997, when the parties in government decided to abolish water...

Water Sector Reforms: Motion (Resumed) (20 Nov 2014)

Michael McNamara: Ping pong?

Water Sector Reforms: Motion (Resumed) (20 Nov 2014)

Michael McNamara: I started my contribution by saying that we are not any better or worse than future generations. I am not claiming credit; I am pointing out what is happening. As to the degree of ping pong, we are all actors on a stage, or so it seems sometimes here. Many positive measures were introduced yesterday. Up to now I have heard many people say that water is provided from general taxation and...

Water Sector Reforms: Motion (Resumed) (20 Nov 2014)

Michael McNamara: The fact that these people are getting money for the first time for the provision of water is a good thing and is to be welcomed. People who get water from group water schemes have had to pay without being able to avail of an inability-to-pay clause up to now. There was no inability-to-pay clause for those with their own wells. A person could call a plumber and if the plumber had a social...

Water Sector Reforms: Motion (Resumed) (20 Nov 2014)

Michael McNamara: I thank Deputy Kelleher for the clarification. I have almost lost my train of thought.

Water Sector Reforms: Motion (Resumed) (20 Nov 2014)

Michael McNamara: They referred to the futility of installing water meters. Anybody who has a metered water supply on which he or she relies and finds that it is cheaper to go onto a metered system can do so. It is not futile. Meters do and will have an immediate water conservation purpose.

Water Sector Reforms: Motion (Resumed) (20 Nov 2014)

Michael McNamara: It is not at all futile.

Water Sector Reforms: Motion (Resumed) (20 Nov 2014)

Michael McNamara: I would have said a character in a Beckett play. They say exactly the same things and do the same things over and over, which is sometimes how this works. As I said, a serious issue underlies all of this, namely, the fact that successive Governments, be they Fianna Fáil and the Green Party, Fianna Fáil and the Labour Party or Fine Gael and the Labour Party - we have not had a...

Order of Business (25 Nov 2014)

Michael McNamara: A former Member of this House, speaking of members of the legal profession, said that they see themselves as immune to reform and have made justice unavailable to all but the mega-rich and quangos in the State. He pointed out that the leading firm system of charging in advance by the hour is the same one used in calculating remuneration for a profession even older than the law.

Order of Business (25 Nov 2014)

Michael McNamara: That is a former Minister for Justice, Des O'Malley's assessment of the legal profession. I understand that the Government is considering changing the law with regard to that profession which is even older than the law. When will we again have sight of the Legal Services Regulation Bill?. Has the Minister been got at, has the Bill been nobbled or is something going to happen when it comes...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Accommodation (25 Nov 2014)

Michael McNamara: 474. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the amount of funding provided to a school (details supplied) in County Clare through a devolved grant for an extension, the tender for which was awarded in 2013. [45276/14]

Written Answers — Department of Environment, Community and Local Government: Irish Water Administration (25 Nov 2014)

Michael McNamara: 521. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the status of persons who have not received any communication from Irish Water and have been unsuccessful in their endeavours to make contact with that body; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45236/14]