Results 1-20 of 4,880 for speaker:Neale Richmond

Seanad: International Development and the Diaspora: Statements (6 Nov 2025)

Neale Richmond: While I will focus my remarks primarily on the international development side of my brief, it is fitting that I commence by paying tribute to our late dear friend and colleague, Senator Billy Lawless. I was lucky to be in Chicago at the weekend and I spent some time with his son, Billy Jnr. I spent something else in The Gage, but we will leave that between me and him. It was brilliant to...

Seanad: International Development and the Diaspora: Statements (6 Nov 2025)

Neale Richmond: I am extremely grateful to all the Senators for their thoughtful and extremely supportive contributions on a range of matters. I will go back to my opening contribution where I said that our overseas development assistance and international development programme, first and foremost, was an investment. It is a solid investment that generates a real return for Ireland and it goes exactly to...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Driver Test (5 Nov 2025)

Neale Richmond: I am very grateful to Deputy Murphy for raising this issue. The Minister of State, Deputy Canney, would also like to thank him for raising this matter and he looks forward to continuing a very close working relationship, given the Deputy's role as Chair of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport. The Department of Transport is committed, under action 7B of the road safety strategy...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Driver Test (5 Nov 2025)

Neale Richmond: I am very grateful to Deputy Murphy for raising this. From a road safety perspective, it is vital that learners are encouraged to complete the learning-to-drive process and become fully qualified drivers, and that people do not hold learner permits without ever taking a driving test. The RSA has a communication plan to engage with multiple learner permit holders. This will provide clear,...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Water Services (5 Nov 2025)

Neale Richmond: I thank the Deputy for raising this issue, which I am taking on behalf of the Minister. The Deputy will appreciate that the supply of public water and the provision of water services in general are matters for Uisce Éireann in the first instance. Uisce Éireann has statutory responsibility for all aspects of water services planning, delivery and operation at national, regional and...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Water Services (5 Nov 2025)

Neale Richmond: Both our water and wastewater systems require substantial and sustained investment over a number of investment cycles to bring the systems up to the quality and resilience standards required of a modern service to provide for population growth and to build resilience in the face of climate change. The preferred long-term approach for Clonmel, as set out in Uisce Éireann's national water...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Wastewater Treatment (5 Nov 2025)

Neale Richmond: The updated rural housing guidelines in the form of a national planning statement will set out relevant planning criteria to be applied in the local authority development plans for rural housing on a consistent basis based on the high-level policy framework set out by the national planning framework and recognising that obligations under European directives and international agreements...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Wastewater Treatment (5 Nov 2025)

Neale Richmond: I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Deputy for raising this important matter. At the House's discretion, I think the Deputy would like to join me in a note of sympathy on the death of his former colleague in Kerry County Council and former mayor of Tralee, Jim Finucane, who was a good friend of mine and I know of the Deputy as well. I am taking this Topical Issue on behalf of...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: State Examinations (5 Nov 2025)

Neale Richmond: I am grateful to the Senator for raising this really important issue once again. I am taking this matter on behalf of the Minister for education. As the Senator is aware, the State Examinations Commission has responsibility for the reasonable accommodations at certificate examinations, RACE, scheme. A central tenet of the RACE scheme is to ensure equitable treatment for all candidates....

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: State Examinations (5 Nov 2025)

Neale Richmond: The point I would make is that more than one in four candidates at the 2025 certificate examinations were provided with some form of reasonable accommodation within the RACE scheme to support them in accessing the State examinations, underlining the importance of the scheme. In 2025, 36,000 candidates in 750 post-primary schools were accommodated in the scheme. I completely understand the...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Environmental Investigations (5 Nov 2025)

Neale Richmond: Let us call a spade a spade. I am quite constrained in what I can answer here. The Senator will understand why. I will go through the detail now. The EPA is an independent public body established under the Environmental Protection Agency Act 1992. The purpose of the EPA is “to protect, improve and restore our environment through regulation, scientific knowledge and working with...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Environmental Investigations (5 Nov 2025)

Neale Richmond: The Department of Climate, Energy and Environment, on behalf of which I am taking matter, is responsible for setting the policy and legislative framework within which the key environmental regulators discharge their functions, including the agency with regard to the environmental licensing of large industrial installations. The Minister for Climate, Energy and Environment, Deputy...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Social Welfare Benefits (5 Nov 2025)

Neale Richmond: I thank the Senator for his extremely emotive and clear advocacy in his contribution. The telephone support allowance is a weekly payment of €2.50 for people on certain social welfare payments who are getting both the living alone increase and the fuel allowance. The primary objective of the telephone support allowance is to support access to critical communications infrastructure...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Social Welfare Benefits (5 Nov 2025)

Neale Richmond: I agree with the Senator that we need to ensure that older people are not left behind in an increasingly digital world. In this regard, I commit that the Government will not be found wanting. The Senator rightly cites and commends the volunteers of ALONE. It is a brilliant organisation to which we are all indebted. As previously outlined, the Department of Social Protection provides...

Written Answers — Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade: International Relations (22 Oct 2025)

Neale Richmond: Ireland has had diplomatic relations with Sudan since 1984, with accreditation changing from our Embassy in Cairo to the Embassy in Nairobi in 2016. A Sudanese Embassy was established in Dublin in 2016. The most recently accredited Ambassador of Sudan to Ireland departed in 2023, with a Chargé d’Affaires ad interim currently in post. On 20 October, the EU Foreign Affairs...

Written Answers — Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade: International Relations (22 Oct 2025)

Neale Richmond: I am aware of the report to which the Deputy refers. We remain deeply concerned by the devastating conflict in Sudan, which has led to the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. More than 150,000 people have already been killed and some 12 million people forcibly displaced. The Government is gravely concerned by reports that arms continue to reach parties to the conflict, despite...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Ukraine War (21 Oct 2025)

Neale Richmond: I am grateful to Deputies O'Meara and Lahart for raising this very timely issue. Ireland condemns Russia’s escalation of large-scale aerial attacks on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities. In recent weeks, Russia has launched thousands of drone and missile attacks into Ukraine, some of which have been the largest aerial attacks since the start of the war, resulting in high numbers of...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Ukraine War (21 Oct 2025)

Neale Richmond: Another figure that the Ukrainian ambassador cited was that 1,000 drones are being built every day in Russia. Those drones are not being used for delivering a cup of coffee or medicine, we all know that, stark as it is. The sanctions package is very interesting. An Irishman, David O'Sullivan, has the EU responsibility of monitoring sanctions and seeing how they impact. I attended a...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Ukraine War (21 Oct 2025)

Neale Richmond: The primary role of the de-mining is in respect of training Ukrainian civilian authorities to clear mines. This is done by members of the Defence Forces. Ireland has a particular expertise globally in de-mining. We have been to the forefront of a number of training missions across Africa. We are still active in Uganda through the United Nations. In the last two years the Defence Forces...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Humanitarian Access (21 Oct 2025)

Neale Richmond: I thank Deputy Ó Laoghaire for this pertinent question. The Government remains deeply concerned by the devastating conflict in Sudan, which has led to the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. More than 150,000 people have been killed and some 12 million people have been forcibly displaced. The conflict continues to have a catastrophic impact on civilians. Despite reports of...