Results 1,601-1,620 of 9,814 for speaker:Steven Matthews

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Invasive Species Policy (6 Jul 2021)

Steven Matthews: 250. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the position regarding a rhododendron management plan for Wicklow National Park; if his attention has been drawn to the growing presence of this invasive species in this location; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36456/21]

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Employment Schemes (6 Jul 2021)

Steven Matthews: 363. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if her Department is considering additional measures or initiatives to help address the extremely high rate of youth unemployment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [36293/21]

Written Answers — Department of Health: Vaccination Programme (6 Jul 2021)

Steven Matthews: 484. To ask the Minister for Health the position regarding Irish citizens returning home after residing abroad who are fully vaccinated using a non EMA approved Covid-19 vaccine (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29659/21]

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Electric Vehicles (7 Jul 2021)

Steven Matthews: 42. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the position regarding funding applications by Wicklow County Council in 2021 with respect to electric vehicle charging points; and if the number of applications and level of funding applied for in both successful and unsuccessful applications will be provided in tabular form. [36650/21]

Written Answers — Department of Health: Vaccination Programme (7 Jul 2021)

Steven Matthews: 186. To ask the Minister for Health if his attention has been drawn to case of home carers who have received one dose of a vaccine (details supplied) and have to wait 12-weeks for the second dose given that in many cases those they care for are now fully vaccinated; if their wait time will be expedited in view of variant concerns; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30597/21]

Affordable Housing Bill 2021 [Seanad]: Committee and Remaining Stages (8 Jul 2021)

Steven Matthews: First, I thank the Minister for introducing amendments Nos. 9 and 14, which go a good way to meeting the objectives of the amendments Deputy Duffy and I previously submitted. This shows that if parties and Members are willing to work with the Minister to improve this legislation, and they are committed to delivering badly needed housing at scale that is affordable and well-designed, then the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Apprenticeship Programmes (8 Jul 2021)

Steven Matthews: 52. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of apprentices recruited in 2021 under the apprenticeship incentivisation scheme; the targets for the scheme for the remainder of 2021 and for 2022 and 2023; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36689/21]

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Apprenticeship Programmes (8 Jul 2021)

Steven Matthews: 60. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if his Department is considering additional measures or initiatives to help recruit mature apprentices; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36687/21]

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Electoral Reform Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (22 Jun 2021)

Steven Matthews: I welcome everybody to the committee this morning for our final session on pre-legislative scrutiny of the general scheme of the electoral reform Bill 2020. I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, back to the committee this morning. Members will be putting some suggestions and perhaps some questions that have arisen from witnesses who have attended so far. We have had a number of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Electoral Reform Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (22 Jun 2021)

Steven Matthews: I thank the Minister of State very much. Today will be the final session we have on this. We hope to present the Minister of State with our pre-legislative scrutiny report as soon as possible to allow the legislation to go to the next Stage. I remind members that I will be strict on five minutes because we only have an hour and a half. If we want to get everybody in it will be strict five...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Electoral Reform Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (22 Jun 2021)

Steven Matthews: I thank the Deputy for his observation. I advise the Minister of State it will be mostly observations rather than questions in this meeting and we will feed back to him about the experience we have had with the witnesses who have attended.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Electoral Reform Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (22 Jun 2021)

Steven Matthews: I thank the Deputy. The Minister of State has about a minute and a half.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Electoral Reform Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (22 Jun 2021)

Steven Matthews: It is grand. We are just tied to these five-minute slots, which makes it a little more difficult. The composition and independence of the board will be in our PLS report anyway so it can be addressed at that stage.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Electoral Reform Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (22 Jun 2021)

Steven Matthews: I thank the Deputy and the Minister of State for keeping to time on that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Electoral Reform Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (22 Jun 2021)

Steven Matthews: I will move on to my own five-minute slot. We had a number of meetings about the Bill, which attracted quite a lot of attention. A wide range of issues are covered in it and that is why it attracted so much attention. A lot of that attention went on registers and political advertising. I was particularly interested to hear some of the concerns and suggestions that came out of the session...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Electoral Reform Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (22 Jun 2021)

Steven Matthews: It has come back to me. The two students we met were from Sion Hill College. It was excellent. Senator Boyhan referred to them as well. I have a meeting with the Irish Council for Civil Liberties. The ICCL has submitted a written submission on this, which we will also include in the pre-legislative scrutiny report. I will move on to the second Fine Gael slot.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Electoral Reform Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (22 Jun 2021)

Steven Matthews: I thank Senator Fitzpatrick. There is a third Fianna Fáil slot, which we might get back to, to answer those questions. I call Deputy Duffy.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Electoral Reform Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (22 Jun 2021)

Steven Matthews: I briefly follow on from Deputy Duffy regarding the time period this covers. I draw the Minister of State’s attention to the submission we got from Ms Liz Carolan, which talked about international interference campaigns. It said that it is clear from international evidence that interference operations begin long before the official election period.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Electoral Reform Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (22 Jun 2021)

Steven Matthews: The final slot is the Fine Gael slot.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Electoral Reform Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (22 Jun 2021)

Steven Matthews: That brings us to the end of the members' contributions. There are two further things I wish to stress to the Minister of State. In one of the earlier sessions on this we looked at concerns about the expertise that would be in the commission to keep pace with the rapid change in the online world and in online and digital advertising. The question asked was whether the commission should...