Results 21-40 of 147 for speaker:Joe Cooney

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Engagement with Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (28 May 2025)

Joe Cooney: Great credit is due to the Minister and I hope that will be the case going forward. As we are halfway through the five year ACRES environmental co-operation scheme, farmers with designated lands in Clare, such as the Burren and Sliabh Aughty, and hen harrier areas, that are non-productive investment should have the potential to improve their scores and payments. We find two and half years...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Engagement with Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (28 May 2025)

Joe Cooney: Some farmers have been waiting for two and half years and have not received any payments since this scheme came in. Am I correct in saying that?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Engagement with Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (28 May 2025)

Joe Cooney: That is welcome news. I hope it will be sorted out sooner than later. We are halfway through our current CAP programme. Has the Minister prepared for the next programme that will cover 2028 to 2032? We are now hearing there may be a ring-fenced CAP budget from Europe. What guarantees can we give that this important payment for rural Ireland will be ring-fenced for farmers? It is very...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Engagement with Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (28 May 2025)

Joe Cooney: I do not want to keep going over things that were already said earlier. TB is a serious issue. It is spreading rapidly. The Minister and his Department have looked into it and have plans. What can we do to curtail TB and, I hope, clean it out completely? I am aware of people who had their whole herds cleaned out completely unfortunately. There have been other discussions about TB, what...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food: Engagement with Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (28 May 2025)

Joe Cooney: I thank the Minister for his response.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Challenges Relating to the Delivery of Housing: Discussion (Resumed) (27 May 2025)

Joe Cooney: I thank the witnesses for the presentation. There has been a call for the reinstatement of the 100% mortgages. Should this be considered in the face of the high cost of housing, the competition that exists in the housing market and the lack of capacity to save of renters paying exorbitant rents?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Challenges Relating to the Delivery of Housing: Discussion (Resumed) (27 May 2025)

Joe Cooney: Unfortunately, that means it will probably make it very hard for young people, given the costs nowadays, to get onto the housing ladder.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Challenges Relating to the Delivery of Housing: Discussion (Resumed) (27 May 2025)

Joe Cooney: Will the witnesses outline the amount of development funding the Central Bank is providing to builders to construct houses?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Challenges Relating to the Delivery of Housing: Discussion (Resumed) (27 May 2025)

Joe Cooney: As regards the other big issue, I would like to ask about population projections and how they were used to determine housing need and, consequentially, the amount of land zoned to enable those houses to be built. In the run-up to the county development plan in County Clare in 2023, the biggest battle we faced was that 95% of projected growth for the county up to 2031 had already been...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Challenges Relating to the Delivery of Housing: Discussion (Resumed) (27 May 2025)

Joe Cooney: We would nearly have to admit we got it wrong in our last county development plans because we see the serious issue we have now in housing and demand. The housing situation is an ongoing concern.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Challenges Relating to the Delivery of Housing: Discussion (Resumed) (27 May 2025)

Joe Cooney: I thank the witnesses.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Challenges Relating to the Delivery of Housing: Discussion (Resumed) (27 May 2025)

Joe Cooney: What the witnesses are saying is there are no blockages preventing developers from buying and developing zoned land for houses.

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Rural Schemes (22 May 2025)

Joe Cooney: 71. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development when he will announce the next tranche of funding under the local improvement scheme; if he will increase the €40 million allocation provided nationwide in 2024; if he will increase the amount of funding provided to County Clare in order to address the very significant backlog; and if he will make a statement on the matter....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Challenges Relating to the Delivery of Housing: County and City Management Association (20 May 2025)

Joe Cooney: I thank the witnesses for their presentation. I worked as a local councillor for a number of years in County Clare and am well aware of the issues they are trying to deal with. Those issues are not easy to deal with. There are various stumbling blocks in the way that prevent us from moving forward with houses, be they local authority houses in need of repair, vacant houses, or residences...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Challenges Relating to the Delivery of Housing: County and City Management Association (20 May 2025)

Joe Cooney: It is a no-brainer to turn those back into residential. It is a big issue in the centre of towns, given the number of buildings. In fairness, local authorities around the country are doing fantastic work. The other big issue is a lack of infrastructure, primarily as regards wastewater, which Mr. Taaffe mentioned. Last week, I tabled a question in the Dáil on a modular certified...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Challenges Relating to the Delivery of Housing: County and City Management Association (20 May 2025)

Joe Cooney: I am delighted Mr. Taaffe mentioned choice-based lettings, CBL. It is a fantastic system and working very well in our county. I am aware it is also working well in other counties. The other big issue is costs and I do not know how we are going sort this. Costs have just gone crazy. This probably turns a lot of young people off building their own houses, given what doing so will cost them.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Challenges Relating to the Delivery of Housing: County and City Management Association (20 May 2025)

Joe Cooney: It is something that needs to be reviewed, especially in rural parts. Uisce Éireann needs to work with the developers. If it is done to Uisce Éireann's criteria and the proper standard, Uisce Éireann should be told that it has to take it over, end of story, and maintain it going forward. That could be a brilliant idea. Regarding costs and workers, local authorities are...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Fisheries Protection (20 May 2025)

Joe Cooney: 126. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the outcome of the tuna CHART programme in 2024; the status of the socioeconomic survey from the authorised charter trips, and if there are plans within his Department to introduce a more widespread recreational catch and release bluefin tuna sport fishery. [25106/25]

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Animal Diseases (20 May 2025)

Joe Cooney: 151. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to detail the outcome of the stakeholder meeting on TB which he arranged for earlier in May; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25104/25]

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Staff (20 May 2025)

Joe Cooney: 486. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills her plans to give public sector status for all secretaries and caretakers working in schools, to be given access to the same rights, the same certainty of a pension on retirement and salaries as the teachers and SNAs that they work alongside; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [25844/25]