Results 1,121-1,140 of 3,444 for speaker:Shane Cassells

Order of Business (27 Feb 2018)

Shane Cassells: The Taoiseach wants to enlarge it further.

Order of Business (27 Feb 2018)

Shane Cassells: We need to defend the county boundaries.

Order of Business (27 Feb 2018)

Shane Cassells: There was greater democracy before it.

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Local Government Reform (27 Feb 2018)

Shane Cassells: 48. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the towns that will be made borough councils under local government reform plans; the additional statutory powers they will be granted; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9697/18]

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Local Authority Members' Remuneration (27 Feb 2018)

Shane Cassells: 58. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government his plans to establish an independent reform body to examine the issue of councillors pay in line with a request made to him by a group (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9696/18]

Consumer Protection (Regulation of Credit Servicing Firms) (Amendment) Bill 2018: Second Stage [Private Members] (6 Mar 2018)

Shane Cassells: As we discuss vulture funds and the stress they are causing to thousands of people, I cast my mind back to and reflect on the property advertisements 15 years that ago sold people a utopian dream. Property supplements in the national and local newspapers ended up being bigger than the newspapers and there were advertisements by the banks, one bigger than the next, offering, ultimately, 100%...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Autism Support Services (6 Mar 2018)

Shane Cassells: 81. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if funding for an, autistic spectrum disorders, ASD, unit in a school (details supplied) will be provided; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10687/18]

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Mayoral Election (6 Mar 2018)

Shane Cassells: 264. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the timeframe for holding plebiscites on a directly elected mayor for Dublin and other cities; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10754/18]

Committee on Public Petitions: Decisions on Public Petitions Received (7 Mar 2018)

Shane Cassells: I accept the Chair's ruling, which will keep the discussion open. Some of the issues that surround the petition have been pointed out. In my capacity as Fianna Fáil's spokesperson on local government, I met Mrs. McKenna and seven other members of the Drogheda city status group last week to hear their petition, which seeks to have Drogheda recognised with city status. The methodology...

Committee on Public Petitions: Decisions on Public Petitions Received (7 Mar 2018)

Shane Cassells: I could be harsher. I am being a diplomat today. It has been recommended that this committee should wait for the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government's upcoming report on local government structures. Quite frankly, that report will not go far enough to address the deficiencies that exist. Having tabled parliamentary questions on this matter - indeed, I have tackled the...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospital Charges (8 Mar 2018)

Shane Cassells: 327. To ask the Minister for Health if his attention has been drawn to the fact that hospitals are charging excessive amounts to health insurance providers for the venesections of persons with haemochromatosis (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11065/18]

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (8 Mar 2018)

Shane Cassells: It is okay. I will be addressing them myself.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (8 Mar 2018)

Shane Cassells: There is nothing more important than the independence of the media in doing its job. In the past two weeks I have heard that they are under extreme financial pressure and have effectively been coerced into allowing this to run because of the financial strain they are under. There is nothing more important than we have entered a sphere in which the State can buy the news. We are not living...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (8 Mar 2018)

Shane Cassells: Chairman-----

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (8 Mar 2018)

Shane Cassells: My point is there is no question that is more fundamental than if people can use public money to try to present spin as news and if the State is buying the news. If the Government presents its press releases, so be it, but if we have come to a point where it can pay for the design to look the same as on every other page in a newspaper, we have entered a most dangerous sphere. Newspapers...

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 8: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities
Local Government Fund Financial Statement 2016
Special Report No. 97 of the Comptroller and Auditor General on the Administration and Collection of Motor Taxes (8 Mar 2018)

Shane Cassells: That is no problem. The Chairman is quite right to pose the questions he has posed. I am not surprised by what I have heard. I spent 17 years on the council until 2016 and am familiar with the pressures that we were under every single year in terms of self-generation of funds through parking income, rates and other levies so I am not surprised whatsoever. I was quite au faitwith those...

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 8: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities
Local Government Fund Financial Statement 2016
Special Report No. 97 of the Comptroller and Auditor General on the Administration and Collection of Motor Taxes (8 Mar 2018)

Shane Cassells: I want to touch on this because the Taoiseach touched on it also and set out his personal views on the matter. I appreciate that the Department of Finance is considering this in the first instance but it will surely liaise with Mr. McCarthy and all the chief benefactors of the fund. Let us look at the scenarios without any predetermined outcome. I note that when writing a piece on this...

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 8: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities
Local Government Fund Financial Statement 2016
Special Report No. 97 of the Comptroller and Auditor General on the Administration and Collection of Motor Taxes (8 Mar 2018)

Shane Cassells: That is an interesting one because many local authorities have availed of that and have applied reductions year on year. It led to the unusual scenario of many county managers making public appeals over local airwaves not to do so, given the impact on services. That is quite unusual because as Mr. McCarthy knows county managers are quite reticent to make any public announcement, good, bad...

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 8: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities
Local Government Fund Financial Statement 2016
Special Report No. 97 of the Comptroller and Auditor General on the Administration and Collection of Motor Taxes (8 Mar 2018)

Shane Cassells: Therefore it is on the table.

Public Accounts Committee: 2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 8: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities
Local Government Fund Financial Statement 2016
Special Report No. 97 of the Comptroller and Auditor General on the Administration and Collection of Motor Taxes (8 Mar 2018)

Shane Cassells: I refer to that review of the distribution of the money because obviously there is the 80% retention of money. I mentioned the Taoiseach because he talked favourably about councillors being able to fully retain what they raise locally in improving local democracy. When it comes to the equalisation of the fund, the redistribution of the 20% from the central pot based on old scenarios that...