Results 1-20 of 2,065 for speaker:Matt Shanahan

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Better Care, Better Business Report: IBEC (19 Jun 2024)

Matt Shanahan: Good morning to our witnesses. I thank them for their communications before the meeting. It is interesting that IBEC is here today because there was a debate again in the House last night regarding carers. One of the figures that was thrown out in terms of the cost of informal care to the economy every year, if the State was to pay for it, was a figure of €20 billion, which would be...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Better Care, Better Business Report: IBEC (19 Jun 2024)

Matt Shanahan: I want to ask about the other point that was made regarding the hours versus days. On paper, it makes sense but the difficulty is that if a person is in a technology workplace, it might be easier for someone to work from home or to log off for a few hours and catch up later on. If a company was employing people in a manufacturing or skills process, where they are part of a team, it is very...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Better Care, Better Business Report: IBEC (19 Jun 2024)

Matt Shanahan: The average age of carers is also a problem, because it falls on the further end. These are people that are generally past their 40s, most are in their 60s and therefore are people who probably want to give up work themselves and not be taking it on. IBEC is trying to keep people connected to the workforce while many of them are already looking for the exit door to their own retirement....

International Protection, Asylum and Migration: Motion (18 Jun 2024)

Matt Shanahan: The management of migration and application for refugee or temporary status in this country has been dysfunctional in many ways for years. Historically, with relatively low levels of migration, the number of applications for international protection status hovered between 1,500 and 2,500 per annum. Even then, our system of direct provision left people in limbo for years in shoddy...

International Protection, Asylum and Migration: Motion (18 Jun 2024)

Matt Shanahan: Others are being bused into towns and villages throughout Ireland, often without the knowledge of local residents, and left in hotels miles away from resources. Refugees are walking for miles to get to the nearest shop all because Ireland is saying "Yes" to a situation for which we have not properly prepared.

International Protection, Asylum and Migration: Motion (18 Jun 2024)

Matt Shanahan: We want to help people who are fleeing hunger, murder and tyranny, but wanting to do something and being properly prepared to do it are two different matters. This migration debate has caused huge division in the country and we have to stop thinking about it as one with a right or a wrong answer. One should never be criticised for saying we should stop, slow down or that we are not ready...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (18 Jun 2024)

Matt Shanahan: I have often raised the issue of University Hospital Waterford, which is the least funded of our model 4 hospitals and has the lowest ratio of healthcare practitioners to beds in such hospitals. I wish to discuss the stroke unit today, though. University Hospital Waterford receives more than 1,000 stroke patients every year, yet it has only five stroke unit beds and two single rooms. One...

Nature Restoration Law: Motion [Private Members] (12 Jun 2024)

Matt Shanahan: The European Union has been working on the nature restoration law for many years and we know the law is a community attempt to halt habitat slide and restore biodiversity loss, which is an obvious imperative. The law is primarily intended to target habitats that contribute to carbon capture and storage. While initial targets up to 2030 can be delivered from our bank of State land, the...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Care Services (11 Jun 2024)

Matt Shanahan: 851.To ask the Minister for Health if he is aware of the current situation in Waterford city and county regarding the lack of respite facilities; if he is aware that currently St. Patrick's care facility has only one bed available (details supplied); if he is aware that families in the Waterford area have been informed that they will only be given one week’s respite; if he agrees that...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Code (30 May 2024)

Matt Shanahan: 205. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if, in relation to the recent Supreme Court findings (details supplied) concerning the right of the bereaved partner to receive social welfare entitlements after the death of their loved one and in support of their family obligations, she will provide an update as to the specific steps the Government is taking to recognise...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Businesses: Discussion (Resumed) (29 May 2024)

Matt Shanahan: I thank all the guests for coming in this morning. It is great to be having these conversations. I say a special thanks to the lads from Amazon who brought some committee members out to see a factory. That was a real eye opener. Maybe committee members could get an invitation from Google and Microsoft to go out and meet those guys as well. As speakers already highlighted, there is so...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Businesses: Discussion (Resumed) (29 May 2024)

Matt Shanahan: Private business is good at looking at opportunities, so that is less of a worry. The worry is how the State will continue to be able to support this space. If a forklift driver in their 50s is told, "We need you to reskill because we are going to put in robots here to deal with logistics and plant", what reskilling will such people do that will potentially keep them in a job? The issue of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Businesses: Discussion (Resumed) (29 May 2024)

Matt Shanahan: I have a note here that the new global arms race appears to involve generative AI. The witnesses already highlighted some of the concerns. We have infrastructural concerns in Ireland, particularly given that we are exposed with transatlantic cables and so on. Will AI prevent hacking in the future or will it ensure it happens far more frequently? There is the issue of how AI might be used...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Aviation Industry (29 May 2024)

Matt Shanahan: 49. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the key policy achievements realised and new initiatives taken by his Department to date and during 2024 in relation to regional aviation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24240/24]

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Aviation Industry (29 May 2024)

Matt Shanahan: 50. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will provide an outline of the spending in aviation in his Department to date and during 2024; to provide an account of any overspend or underspend noted by his Department in this Government programme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24241/24]

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Airport Policy (29 May 2024)

Matt Shanahan: 51. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the main sectors of analysis his Department is applying to the present Waterford airport runway extension review; the number of similar reviews using the same analysis template that have taken place in his Department over the past five years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24242/24]

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Airport Policy (29 May 2024)

Matt Shanahan: 52. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will outline, regarding the Waterford airport runway extension business review, the way in which the exposure of the Exchequer being capped at maximum €12 million liability is captured in the present review report; to detail any other projects reviewed by his Department requesting Government funding where a similar...

Ireland's Recognition of the State of Palestine: Statements (28 May 2024)

Matt Shanahan: Ireland has a deeply felt understanding of the desire of people for the recognition of their own place, culture and existence. Eight hundred years of occupation and a great deal of repression did nothing to quell the Irish desire for freedom, self-determination, self-rule and the international recognition of our civil rights. The Irish State as it is today is often used as an international...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Small and Medium Enterprises (23 May 2024)

Matt Shanahan: I welcome the extension of the increased cost of business, ICOB, scheme and the changes to the PRSI and VAT thresholds, which is something I and my colleagues in the Regional Group brought to Government some weeks back in a Private Member's motion. I wish to ask about the participation rate. How many businesses are accessing ICOB? What consideration has been given to those businesses that...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Small and Medium Enterprises (23 May 2024)

Matt Shanahan: As the Minister knows, some of the burden in costs is due to the environment of increased costs inflation, but a large part has been brought about by the progressive costs introduced by the Government. I have advocated for quite some time to Deputy Varadkar, when he was Taoiseach, and to Deputy Coveney, when he was Minister, and now I am saying it to Deputy Burke as Minister, as I have said...