Results 3,761-3,780 of 18,761 for speaker:Michael McDowell
- Seanad: Order of Business (26 Oct 2017)
Michael McDowell: As to what Senator Ardagh was saying about the projected increase in population of 1.1 million by 2030, the Senator also raised the need for physical planning to accommodate that. In particular, the Senator refers to local authorities having to get their act together. I merely wanted to raise the recent remarks of the Dublin city manager to the effect that public open spaces are to be the...
- Seanad: Order of Business (26 Oct 2017)
Michael McDowell: -----in supplying land for redevelopment of Dublin. This shows me that there is not an understanding at all.
- Seanad: Order of Business (26 Oct 2017)
Michael McDowell: What is needed for Dublin is an agency for urban renewal. I have said this before in this House and I say it again. One cannot rely on Dublin City Council which, by the way, is the proprietor of most of the worst areas of dereliction-----
- Seanad: Order of Business (26 Oct 2017)
Michael McDowell: -----and neglect in this country, and which is demolishing half of its own estate now because of dereliction and poor management, to be the motor of Dublin urban renewal. I ask the Members of this House to go and look at Ballymun after its so-called regeneration. It is a bleak place. It is no more a community now than it ever was in the past. If one wants to regenerate cities, one must...
- Seanad: Order of Business (26 Oct 2017)
Michael McDowell: It is gone.
- Seanad: Order of Business (26 Oct 2017)
Michael McDowell: It is not any more.
- Seanad: Order of Business (26 Oct 2017)
Michael McDowell: I know a failure when I see a failure and I do not think Senator Marie-Louise O'Donnell has been in Ballymun very often recently.
- Seanad: Order of Business (26 Oct 2017)
Michael McDowell: Which is useless at its job.
- Seanad: Order of Business (26 Oct 2017)
Michael McDowell: It spends €750 million a year and has 6,000 employees. It is useless.
- Seanad: Order of Business (19 Oct 2017)
Michael McDowell: Regarding some of the remarks passed earlier, I too, like many others, was deeply upset by the violence we saw in Catalonia on our television screens. However, I will raise one point by way of observation: it is strange that in this House and this country, there should be such active support for the right of a north-eastern portion of any country, which is more prosperous than the rest of...
- Seanad: Order of Business (19 Oct 2017)
Michael McDowell: It surprises me.
- Seanad: Order of Business (19 Oct 2017)
Michael McDowell: The point I wish to make concerns the local property tax. I note in today's newspaper that a small one-bedroom worker's cottage in Colliers Avenue in Ranelagh sold for over €300,000. That is €1,000 per square foot. I looked at comparable prices - what one would get for that kind of money - in the midlands of this country on one of these property sites and noticed one house...
- Seanad: Order of Business (18 Oct 2017)
Michael McDowell: I draw the House's attention to the report of the Seanad Public Consultation Committee on children's mental health, which was launched earlier. In particular, I congratulate the members of the committee, including the Leas-Chathaoirleach who served as Chairman, and not least my colleague, Senator Joan Freeman, who was rapporteur of the committee, for all the hard work they put into focusing...
- Seanad: Order of Business (18 Oct 2017)
Michael McDowell: -----their independence - I will finish on this point - to say they are more independent than the people in my group is totally wrong.
- Seanad: Order of Business (18 Oct 2017)
Michael McDowell: May I finish? They are less effective because-----
- Seanad: Order of Business (18 Oct 2017)
Michael McDowell: -----they have refused to co-operate. When they come into this House and say they are the only real Independents here, they are misdescribing the situation. It must be put on the record-----
- Seanad: Order of Business (18 Oct 2017)
Michael McDowell: Since they describe themselves as real Independents, the suggestion being that others are phoney Independents-----
- Seanad: Order of Business (18 Oct 2017)
Michael McDowell: If real independence means-----
- Seanad: Order of Business (18 Oct 2017)
Michael McDowell: I certainly can.
- Seanad: Order of Business (18 Oct 2017)
Michael McDowell: I do not want to get into comment on the fact that they are yet again absent.