Results 19,641-19,660 of 21,096 for speaker:Charles Flanagan

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Appointment of Special Envoys and Update on Afghanistan: Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence (31 Aug 2021)

Charles Flanagan: Thank you.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Appointment of Special Envoys and Update on Afghanistan: Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence (31 Aug 2021)

Charles Flanagan: I thank the Minister. I am still conscious of the clock. I will now proceed to the round of supplementary questions. I ask members to be concise, not to be repetitive and not to go over ground on which we have received answers. I will call members in the following order: Senator Ardagh, Deputies Gannon, Brady and Cowen, Senator Craughwell and Deputy Clarke.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Appointment of Special Envoys and Update on Afghanistan: Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence (31 Aug 2021)

Charles Flanagan: I ask the Minister to respond on the timing of the texts insofar as he can.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Appointment of Special Envoys and Update on Afghanistan: Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence (31 Aug 2021)

Charles Flanagan: I ask the Minister to address the issue of lobbying and conversations. I call Deputy Brady, following which I will call the Minister.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Appointment of Special Envoys and Update on Afghanistan: Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence (31 Aug 2021)

Charles Flanagan: There is a legal procedure for FOI requests and an accepted practice and procedure in that regard. I remind members of the comments of Secretary General, Mr. Burgess, earlier in the meeting. I call the Minister on the matter of the direct questions as put, following which I will return to Deputies Cowen, Senator Craughwell and Deputy Clarke for a final wrap-up.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Appointment of Special Envoys and Update on Afghanistan: Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence (31 Aug 2021)

Charles Flanagan: I do not think the Minister has that information at his disposal as we speak. I call Deputy Cowen.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Appointment of Special Envoys and Update on Afghanistan: Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence (31 Aug 2021)

Charles Flanagan: Does the Minister have that information? He may not have it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Appointment of Special Envoys and Update on Afghanistan: Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence (31 Aug 2021)

Charles Flanagan: That is acceptable.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Appointment of Special Envoys and Update on Afghanistan: Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence (31 Aug 2021)

Charles Flanagan: No, I believe the Minister-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Appointment of Special Envoys and Update on Afghanistan: Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence (31 Aug 2021)

Charles Flanagan: I do not know what other appointments Senator Craughwell is referring to. There were several appointments, as the Minister said, but we are dealing with the issue of special envoys. It would be unfair to the process and to everybody involved to raise at the last minute issues that are unrelated to the appointment of special envoys.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Appointment of Special Envoys and Update on Afghanistan: Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence (31 Aug 2021)

Charles Flanagan: It is important that we are fair to the Minister. We have been discussing this issue for almost two hours and have been provided with a great deal of information. There are some outstanding issues to which reference was made and we ask that they be followed up in writing. We should be fair to the Minister insofar as the process is concerned. I ask him to respond to the recent questions.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Appointment of Special Envoys and Update on Afghanistan: Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence (31 Aug 2021)

Charles Flanagan: I am obliged to bring matters to a conclusion in accordance with the current Covid restrictions, hopefully for the last time. I thank the Minister, Deputy Coveney, on behalf of the committee for meeting us here and for dealing with members' questions in the manner as dealt. I thank the officials for being present, namely, Ms Hyland and Mr. Burgess. On behalf of the committee and on my...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Grant Payments (27 Jul 2021)

Charles Flanagan: 60. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the status of the actions being taken to address the backlog for SEAI warmer homes grants; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39589/21]

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Appointment of Special Envoys: Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence (7 Sep 2021)

Charles Flanagan: I have received apologies from Senator Niall Ó Donnghaile and I welcome Senator Lynn Boylan who is substituting for him. Our agenda is a meeting with the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence, Deputy Simon Coveney, on the appointment of special envoys. We meet again this morning with the Minister, Deputy Coveney, as a follow up to last week's meeting in respect of the appointment of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Appointment of Special Envoys: Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence (7 Sep 2021)

Charles Flanagan: I will make two points on that, if Deputy Brady does not mind.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Appointment of Special Envoys: Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence (7 Sep 2021)

Charles Flanagan: I will make two points on this. First, it is not a point of order. Points of order deal with proceedings and processes of the meeting. My next point is that I had the opportunity to speak with the Deputy directly on this issue. The submission of any document to members of the media before members of the committee was not an issue for the committee. It did not happen on the part of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Appointment of Special Envoys: Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence (7 Sep 2021)

Charles Flanagan: That exercise will be done but I remind Deputy Brady this is not a point of order. I also remind him that some valuable committee time is already being expended on this extraneous issue. I will ask the Minister, Deputy Coveney, to make his opening statement without interruption from any member of the committee.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Appointment of Special Envoys: Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence (7 Sep 2021)

Charles Flanagan: I thank the Minister and now call Deputy Cowen. I remind the Deputy that we are very keen to have questions to the Minister in a direct and concise manner, to which the Minister will reply. The Deputy has a total of eight minutes in this session. I will remind him on the expiry of seven minutes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Appointment of Special Envoys: Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence (7 Sep 2021)

Charles Flanagan: Could the response be very brief as I am anxious to proceed to Deputy Brady?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Appointment of Special Envoys: Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence (7 Sep 2021)

Charles Flanagan: I am sure we will have an opportunity to come back to this important issue.