Results 11,781-11,800 of 15,805 for speaker:Michael Ring

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Post Office Closures (25 Sep 2018)

Michael Ring: As the Deputy is aware, the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment has policy responsibility for the postal sector. However, I am acutely aware of the value placed by rural communities on services such as the local post office. Ensuring access to services for rural communities is an issue that cuts across almost all Departments. It also relates to services provided...

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Post Office Closures (25 Sep 2018)

Michael Ring: I have provided €80,000 to the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment to support the establishment of ten digital access post offices on a pilot basis. An Post have picked the ten post offices; we are looking at how we can support it in the digital era. I do not like saying things like this, but I have to be honest sometimes. I have said to Deputy Ó...

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Post Office Closures (25 Sep 2018)

Michael Ring: The Deputy should listen. It was a village of 500 people, made up of 300 families. In the local post office, 50 TV licences had been bought, which amounts to one per week. If people want post offices and small shops and such services they are going to have to use them. Almost 87% of people last year taxed their cars online. People are getting their passports online. They are banking and...

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Post Office Closures (25 Sep 2018)

Michael Ring: I disagree with the Deputy; rural Ireland is not dead. There have never been as many people working and living in rural Ireland. However, the small shops and little businesses that once were there are no longer present because people are shopping with their feet. People are working in towns and going home to rural Ireland in the evening, and are using the bigger outlets. That is a...

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Departmental Expenditure (25 Sep 2018)

Michael Ring: I will give the Deputy so many figures that he will not be able to take them all in.

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Departmental Expenditure (25 Sep 2018)

Michael Ring: I will just give Deputy Ó Cuív the table. It might be easier. The Revised Estimates for 2018 in respect of the Department of Rural and Community Development set out an allocation of €87.5 million for gross capital expenditure, supplemented by €7.7 million carried forward from 2017. I have provided an update of capital expenditure to date across the...

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Departmental Expenditure (25 Sep 2018)

Michael Ring: The Deputy knows this. He has been around this House for long enough. I reject what he says about me spending the money. I have spent the money. It is the Leader companies, the local authorities and the people who have actually got the money that have not spent it. I am putting pressure on the local authorities on a daily and weekly basis. The Deputy and I both know that much work has...

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Departmental Expenditure (25 Sep 2018)

Michael Ring: To date, 24% of the overall project allocations have been approved, totalling €40 million.

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Departmental Expenditure (25 Sep 2018)

Michael Ring: The total to date is €40 million. Some 24% of overall project allocation has been approved. When the value of the project applications which we have received and provisionally approved is considered, this figure increases to 28% of overall allocation, €46 million. Some 1,300 projects have been approved with a further 324 in the pipeline. I have allocated the money in time....

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Departmental Expenditure (25 Sep 2018)

Michael Ring: I have the two figures. The total of allocations is €164,503,189.

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Departmental Expenditure (25 Sep 2018)

Michael Ring: There are 304 projects to a value of €21.111 million.

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Departmental Expenditure (25 Sep 2018)

Michael Ring: No.

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Departmental Expenditure (25 Sep 2018)

Michael Ring: With regard to what has been spent-----

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Departmental Expenditure (25 Sep 2018)

Michael Ring: I have given the information to the Deputy but the problem is he has come in here having asked a specific question about LEADER, for which I have all the details for him-----

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Leader Programmes Expenditure (25 Sep 2018)

Michael Ring: LEADER is a multi-annual programme for the period 2014 to 2020 that has a total budget of €250 million over the programming period. Some €220 million has already been allocated to the LEADER sub-regional areas across the country. This allocation has been made for the duration of the programme, rather than on an annual basis, to provide greater flexibility to the local action...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Leader Programmes Expenditure (25 Sep 2018)

Michael Ring: I state again that 35% of available funding, or €3.9 million, has been allocated. I cannot reallocate money until the money there is spent. I will monitor this to see how LEADER programmes do that. The Deputy's question relates to preparation support costs, which amounted to €1.468 million, with administration costs of €19.601 million. Project expenditure is...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Leader Programmes Expenditure (25 Sep 2018)

Michael Ring: I will monitor what is going on with the LEADER companies in Donegal. I compliment the Kerry LEADER programme, which is great at initiatives for town and village and outdoor recreation. It is doing great and if that programme can do it, everybody else can do it as well. To date in Donegal, €3.9 million has been allocated, which is 35% of the total. We hope that this year we will...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Leader Programmes Expenditure (25 Sep 2018)

Michael Ring: It is amazing that €19 million has been spent on administration of the LEADER programme while project expenditure only amounts to €6 million. The total programme to date has a spend of €27 million. We made 31 changes to simplify the programme and we must comply with European Union regulation and rules. We looked at the schemes and the programme, including ways to make...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Programme for Government Implementation (25 Sep 2018)

Michael Ring: A Programme for Partnership Government, agreed in May 2016, contains a commitment to task "a co-ordinating unit to work with communities to develop co-operative structures to keep vital local services in place and to retain and develop vibrant local enterprises." This commitment in the programme related to job creation and rural development, and it was planned at the time that the unit and...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Programme for Government Implementation (25 Sep 2018)

Michael Ring: The question the Deputy asked related to commitments in the programme for Government. The new Department of Rural and Community Development has overtaken that. That is why, within the Department, other schemes have been set up, particularly in relation to local and community schemes, the community enhancement programme and local community development committees, LCDCs. The point of the...