Results 12,201-12,220 of 15,805 for speaker:Michael Ring

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Brexit Issues (23 Jan 2019)

Michael Ring: My Department has been undertaking appropriate planning for various Brexit scenarios, including a no-deal Brexit. As is the case for all Departments, this planning has fed into the cross-Government preparations being led by my colleague, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Coveney. Planning by Government and at the EU level, for all possible outcomes, has been ramped up and...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Brexit Issues (23 Jan 2019)

Michael Ring: I can only speak for my Department, but as a member of the Government and Cabinet, I can say that preparations are taking place on a daily basis. The answer to the Deputy's question is that there is flexibility in my Department and there will be more flexibility. When the time comes and if there is a no-deal Brexit, which puts certain communities and areas in bigger difficulties than...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Brexit Issues (23 Jan 2019)

Michael Ring: I reassure the Deputy that all Departments, Ministers and the Government as a whole are working on the Brexit proposals. We published a plan on 19 December. The Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation and the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, have a fund to help small businesses prepare for Brexit. The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has such plans, as does every other...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Brexit Issues (23 Jan 2019)

Michael Ring: We still all are hoping that we will have a deal.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Brexit Issues (23 Jan 2019)

Michael Ring: To be honest, I could point out a few small matters to the Deputy. He and his party would be a great help to us if they took up their place in Northern Ireland and their seats in the House of Commons. We would then have somebody to represent the nationalist view both in the North and in England.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Brexit Issues (23 Jan 2019)

Michael Ring: All I can say to the Deputy is his party is not afraid to take the Queen's shilling. They took the expenses but they will not go in to represent us. We need you now more than ever but you will not go in to represent us.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Disadvantaged Areas Scheme (23 Jan 2019)

Michael Ring: The community enhancement programme, which I launched in 2018, provided €13 million to community groups to enhance facilities in their areas. The new programme does not ring-fence funding for specific locations. Instead funding is allocated to each local authority area, taking into account the relative deprivation levels. Local community development committees, LCDCs, administer the...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Disadvantaged Areas Scheme (23 Jan 2019)

Michael Ring: I disagree with the Deputy because if one takes the north inner city of Dublin, in 2017 we gave €2.5 million, in 2018 we gave €3.5 million and in 2019, it will receive €6.5 million. This funding is targeted to the greatest disadvantage. On the RAPID programme referred to by the Deputy, the value-for-money report that was produced on it specifically stated it was not...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Disadvantaged Areas Scheme (23 Jan 2019)

Michael Ring: The Deputy is not saying anything different to what I have said myself. The Dublin inner city received was allocated €6.5 million this year. Last year's funding for South Dublin County Council was €737,700, which provided for 120 projects that have been approved to date. These projects were ring-fenced. I also gave funding to the Men's Shed programme and ring-fenced...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Tidy Towns Committees Funding (23 Jan 2019)

Michael Ring: In 2018 I launched the new community enhancement programme under which grants are provided for community groups to help them to improve facilities in their area. The programme is aimed at improving community facilities to address disadvantage. In 2018 I allocated a total of €13 million for the programme, which included €500,000 that was ring-fenced for a men’s sheds...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Tidy Towns Committees Funding (23 Jan 2019)

Michael Ring: For the past two years, since I took up office, I have made funding available to every Tidy Towns group in the country. It is something at which I could and might look as no other group is more worthy of it, but it is all about the finances. I was able to allocate the money from savings in the Department. Perhaps I might look at having something on a more permanent basis. In the rules and...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Tidy Towns Committees Funding (23 Jan 2019)

Michael Ring: It is something at which I will look. Like the Deputy, I have a lot time for Tidy Towns groups. Perhaps I might look at the community enhancement programme and ring-fence money for them. It is something at which I will look because they are worthy of support. As I move across the country to visit every town and village, I see certain projects which people tell me were carried out with the...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Isolation (23 Jan 2019)

Michael Ring: Addressing the issue of isolation in rural and urban areas requires a combination of policy initiatives and actions to improve both economic development and to address gaps in meeting social needs in these areas. Many of the initiatives form part of the Government’s published Action Plan for Rural Development and framework policy for local and community development which include a...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Isolation (23 Jan 2019)

Michael Ring: The Deputy is correct. It is why some of the schemes in my Department such as the seniors alert scheme have worked very well. In 2018 we spent €6.984 million in supporting 19,000 new participants. There is a new initiative which I will introduce and for which I would like to receive the Deputy's support and that of everybody else in the House. It is the national community weekend...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Isolation (23 Jan 2019)

Michael Ring: I also have the community services programme which works very well. In 2019, €46 million has been allocated for that programme to support more than 400 organisations to deal with many of the issues raised by the Deputy. We also have social enterprises and voluntary groups targeting disadvantage, albeit sometimes they do not fit in with the schemes I have set out. I am carrying out a...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: CLÁR Programme (23 Jan 2019)

Michael Ring: CLÁR has been very successful since I reintroduced it in 2016, following a number of years during which it was closed to new applications. Under the programme funding is provided for small-scale projects in rural areas which have experienced significant levels of depopulation. While the amounts available to fund projects under CLÁR are relatively modest, the impact of that funding...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: CLÁR Programme (23 Jan 2019)

Michael Ring: CLÁR is a programme under which we have some flexibility which we use. Deputy Calleary was, however, correct in the issue he raised earlier. I do not want to start to take on matters which it is the role of other Departments to address. I had to do that in respect of the local improvement scheme when other Departments would not take on the role, with the result that no scheme was in...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: CLÁR Programme (23 Jan 2019)

Michael Ring: I ask the Deputy to send on the details of the case and will get the Department to see why the school was unsuccessful in applying previously. Under the scheme support is provided for schools in the provision of community safety measures. When it comes to safety measures, there is some flexibility. As such, I ask the Deputy to send on the details and I will have a look at them. The other...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: LEADER Programmes Expenditure (23 Jan 2019)

Michael Ring: Project expenditure under the current LEADER programme commenced in 2017, following the signing of funding agreements in the second half of 2016 with the majority of the local action groups, LAGs, which deliver the programme throughout the country. To date, 1,644 projects with a grant value of more than €55.8 million have been approved for LEADER funding by the LAGs. A further 355...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: LEADER Programmes Expenditure (23 Jan 2019)

Michael Ring: Negotiations for the new LEADER programme are already taking place. I hope that, unlike every other programme, there is no gap in the new programme, and at Government level I will push to ensure there is no gap but rather a continuation of the scheme. On the drawdown of funding, as the Deputy will know, when approvals are made, if the LAGs present with receipts and evidence of work...