Results 2,541-2,560 of 5,580 for speaker:Paul McAuliffe

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Community Development Projects (31 Jan 2023)

Paul McAuliffe: 804. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development the funding stream for a new community centre (details supplied) in Dublin 11; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [4307/23]

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Marine Protected Areas Bill 2023: Discussion (resumed) (31 Jan 2023)

Paul McAuliffe: I thank Professor Crowe. Some of the areas in the Bill are technical. I am interested in the idea of public consultation, which was previously referred to. Sometimes consultation can have a really positive impact on a process. Sometimes it can distract from what the process is really about. In the context of best practice internationally, is Professor Crowe aware of types of consultation...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Marine Protected Areas Bill 2023: Discussion (resumed) (31 Jan 2023)

Paul McAuliffe: What we do not want is the box being ticked by just having the advertisement in the paper.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Marine Protected Areas Bill 2023: Discussion (resumed) (31 Jan 2023)

Paul McAuliffe: By the same token, it is an incredibly technical and complicated issue. It can be hard sometimes to engage members of the public who are busy with their normal lives.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Marine Protected Areas Bill 2023: Discussion (resumed) (31 Jan 2023)

Paul McAuliffe: It is also part of a broader education process about our biodiversity and climate resources. The Minister will have the opportunity to have expert advice. It could be interesting to see how the expertise that is available to the Minister might also be available in the consultation phase-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Marine Protected Areas Bill 2023: Discussion (resumed) (31 Jan 2023)

Paul McAuliffe: -----or might be connected because, first of all, we get a continuance of policy information. It would also be a better use of a resource that will already be there. Professor Crowe may have been asked this question already, but in terms of the process of the availability of these experts, we find it increasingly difficult to get people to serve in these types of public roles or that by...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Marine Protected Areas Bill 2023: Discussion (resumed) (31 Jan 2023)

Paul McAuliffe: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Marine Protected Areas Bill 2023: Discussion (resumed) (31 Jan 2023)

Paul McAuliffe: It may also preclude people from being engaged in certain commercial practises or other resources because there might be conflicts of interest and so on.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Marine Protected Areas Bill 2023: Discussion (resumed) (31 Jan 2023)

Paul McAuliffe: Okay. That was with regard to heads 9 and 10 with regard to the consultation and head 5 in respect of the expert group. The other area in which I had an interest was head 12 and the idea of a temporary marine protected area, MPA, as a result of an emergency. The example given in the briefing was the idea of a significant oil leak or something along those lines. I wonder whether two...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Marine Protected Areas Bill 2023: Discussion (resumed) (31 Jan 2023)

Paul McAuliffe: The question is, though, whether two years is ever going to be sufficient.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Marine Protected Areas Bill 2023: Discussion (resumed) (31 Jan 2023)

Paul McAuliffe: Okay.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Marine Protected Areas Bill 2023: Discussion (resumed) (31 Jan 2023)

Paul McAuliffe: The last point is bigger; I do not expect Professor Crowe to have an answer. We are starting now to harness the resources that are available to us in terms of wind energy and offshore wind energy. Inevitable, when human activity is brought into a natural environment, it causes disruption. We will never mitigate that completely. Yet, there are hugely positive benefits of offshore wind and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Marine Protected Areas Bill 2023: Discussion (resumed) (31 Jan 2023)

Paul McAuliffe: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Marine Protected Areas Bill 2023: Discussion (resumed) (31 Jan 2023)

Paul McAuliffe: One of the things we will probably see is that people who were previously on the same side on these issues may actually have very different views on them. That is something we have to reflect both in the consultation and expert panel and in the broader debate on the subject. I thank Professor Crowe for being with us today.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Marine Protected Areas Bill 2023: Discussion (resumed) (31 Jan 2023)

Paul McAuliffe: I was thinking about that too.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (26 Jan 2023)

Paul McAuliffe: I have Deputy O'Connor to my left and Deputy Murnane O'Connor to my right, both of whom have raised the issue of the national car test, NCT, waiting list times. I continue, even this week, to get queries from people who are not able to secure NCT appointments and who have even had to wait months for the cancellation list. I have particular concern for the older people who come into my...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (26 Jan 2023)

Paul McAuliffe: I respect anyone's right to raise any issues here at a meeting of the Committee of Public Accounts. I am thinking of the scale of the task ahead of us. Commercial semi-State organisations must make commercial calculations so inevitably with such a remit there will be losses as well as successes. Let us consider the scale of public spending in the HSE, for example, which is more than...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (26 Jan 2023)

Paul McAuliffe: This week, we celebrated four Irish actors being nominated for Oscars. Is the committee going to start analysing every investment that Screen Ireland has made?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (26 Jan 2023)

Paul McAuliffe: I do not know if the PAC is the correct forum. I am not saying this issue is not important. I just think that, on balance, in terms of the scale of work that this committee has, we would be better spending our time elsewhere.