Results 2,121-2,140 of 5,632 for speaker:Jennifer Carroll MacNeill

Committee on Scrutiny of Draft EU-related Statutory Instruments: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs (17 Jul 2024)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: Because of that, Senator-----

Committee on Scrutiny of Draft EU-related Statutory Instruments: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs (17 Jul 2024)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: I thank the Senator, I do understand. This is precisely why I am trying to get a process in place. I cannot determine this. I can only look for agreement to it, to publish that draft statutory instrument. This is essentially going to be the policy direction that the Department takes. It is right that the committee has that. It is totally appropriate that the committee has it as early as...

Committee on Scrutiny of Draft EU-related Statutory Instruments: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs (17 Jul 2024)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: There is a body of work we can do together before this Oireachtas finishes. We can improve the process across Government. I want to do that for the next Oireachtas. We have a chance here to work together to get a new process in place, which, as the Senator says, will be a different process for the first time in 50 years. It will be a better scrutiny process. I will not be able to get the...

National Vetting Bureau (Children and Vulnerable Persons) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Second Stage [Private Members] (11 Jul 2024)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: I am greatly encouraged to see that Deputy Ó Snodaigh takes the same approach to volunteering as I do, which is that we do enough public service here. I cannot be baking tray-bakes and that. Perhaps when the electorate decides I need more time to bake tray-bakes and volunteer in different ways, I will spend my time doing that as well. In the meantime, I feel like I have a pass and now...

National Vetting Bureau (Children and Vulnerable Persons) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Second Stage [Private Members] (11 Jul 2024)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: I thank Deputy Daly and Deputies Cronin and Donnelly for introducing this Private Members' Bill on Second Stage today and acknowledge their intentions in bringing forward the Bill. I would also like to acknowledge, as Deputy Daly has, the work of the OPLA, which does extraordinary work to support Deputies in this House in producing Private Members' Bills. In my first role in this House,...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Waste Management (11 Jul 2024)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: I would like to thank Deputy O’Rourke for raising this important matter, as I welcome the opportunity to respond to media reports claiming that some waste collection providers may increase household-waste collection charges as a result of the introduction of the deposit return scheme, DRS. The introduction of the DRS for plastic bottles and aluminium cans is a positive...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Waste Management (11 Jul 2024)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: I presume the Deputy is supportive of the DRS?

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Waste Management (11 Jul 2024)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: The DRS is a good idea and there is a way in which it has to be managed and rolled out. As the Deputy has heard me say, and as customers will also hear me say, that if the success of the DRS results in the waste collection industry raising the price for households, the Government does not accept that such prices are inevitable, as the Deputy has said, nor merited. I just want to be very...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Water Services (11 Jul 2024)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: I thank the Deputy. I am answering on behalf of the Minister for housing, who has responsibility for water and other things. The Deputy is quite right. Uisce Éireann's annual report and financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2023 were laid before the Houses at the end of June 2024. The year 2023 is the first year that Uisce Éireann has been audited, both by its...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Water Services (11 Jul 2024)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: I appreciate the point the Deputy made. It goes beyond my ability to respond on behalf of the Minister because I do not have the operational knowledge. I certainly hear the Deputy. It is important that she takes her opportunity to put us on notice. It is a different model. That is the one that was chosen for the purposes of trying to invest in future waterworks. There may just be...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Building Regulations (11 Jul 2024)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: Not only that but there is an important effect for the sheer humanity of having appropriate living standards. The Deputy is quite right to raise it. Under section 34 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, any person who contravenes the regulations I discussed in my previous contribution, fails to comply with an improvement notice or re-lets a house on the private side will be...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Building Regulations (11 Jul 2024)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. I am responding on behalf of the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage but I also appear as a constituency TD. I am well aware of the issue of mould, particularly for HAP tenants in the private rental sector. Before coming to the House, such is the importance of the issue to me, I went through my constituency database to...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Water Quality (11 Jul 2024)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: I thank the Senator. I am glad he raised the issue. It is unfortunate he should have to raise it here. However, as a Member of the Seanad, he is entirely entitled to raise matters on behalf of the community in which he lives, particularly something as concerning as a boil-water notice that has lasted 14 days. I note he said he had difficulties in terms of communication. I understand the...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Water Quality (11 Jul 2024)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: I could not agree more. The people in the Senator's community will understand that things go wrong and that it is completely reasonable in any walk of life or in any part of the State services that problems will occur and will have to be fixed. However, how State services respond to problems matters as much as anything else. The lack of communication with people is evident because the...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Rental Sector (11 Jul 2024)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: I thank Senator Garvey for giving me this opportunity on behalf of the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, to update the Seanad in relation to the planning guidelines that will supplement the short-term letting legislation. In line with the specific action in the Government's Housing for All plan, to develop new regulatory controls requiring short-term and holiday lets to register with Fáilte...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Rental Sector (11 Jul 2024)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: I believe the Senator is asking me for the substance of the guidelines, which I do not have.

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Rental Sector (11 Jul 2024)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: The timeline is that a draft will be published on the publication of the Bill. It will be published alongside the publication of the Bill, as I noted there in the answer. That will be in order that Members of the Oireachtas and stakeholders can have sight of what is envisaged. I think the Senator is asking me to confirm exemptions or the status of exemptions in an answer, which I cannot...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Asylum Seekers (11 Jul 2024)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: I thank Senator Conway for raising this important issue. I was struck by the total decency, generosity, kindness and humanity he has shown in advancing his Commencement matter on this issue and the way in which he has done it by respecting the lives, experiences and difficulties encountered by the people who have come here from Ukraine and developed good relationships here and the overall...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Asylum Seekers (11 Jul 2024)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: I thank the Senator for again providing me with the opportunity to listen and understand the concerns he is raising regarding the balance in County Clare. I generally think the county-by-county strategy is where we need to get to, insofar as advancing the Minister's thinking in this regard already. Of course, there is a need to rationalise and manage contracts in cases where some providers...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Asylum Seekers (11 Jul 2024)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: I ask the Senator to forgive me. I had the date of 24 June. I thank the Senator.